Taylor Swift reveals she bought back her masters in emotional message to fans

30 May 2025, 18:13 | Updated: 31 May 2025, 16:27

Taylor Swift has bought back her masters. Picture: Instagram/Getty

By Jenny Medlicott

In a twist none of us saw coming, Taylor Swift has announced that she now owns her masters.

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It’s the Love Story nobody had on their bingo cards for 2025, but it’s official: Taylor Swift has bought back the master recordings for her first six albums.

Back in 2019, it was announced that Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings had bought Big Machine Label Group, Taylor's first record label and the label who owned the masters to Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and reputation. The sale included Taylor's masters, which ended up in the possession of Scooter.

In 2020, Scooter then sold Taylor's masters on to Shamrock for more than $300 million, per reports.

The dispute kicked off one of the most important and successful eras of Taylor's entire career. She began re-recording those six albums in order to gain some control over her own music, a move that would go on to change the music industry as we know it today.

Now, in a shock turn of events, Taylor has announced that she now finally owns her masters six long years after the dispute first began.

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Writing to her fans alongside photos of her with the original albums, Taylor said: "I’m trying to gather my thoughts into something coherent, but right now my mind is just a slideshow."

"A flashback sequence of all the times I daydreamed about, wished for, and pined away for a chance to get to tell you this news. All the times I was thiiiiiiiis close, reaching out for it, only for it to fall through. I almost stopped thinking it could ever happen, after 20 years of having the carrot dangled and then yanked away. But that’s all in the past now.

"I’ve been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found out that this is really happening. I really get to say these words: All of the music I’ve ever made… now belongs… to me.

"And all my music videos. All the concert films. The album art and photography. The unreleased songs. The memories. The magic. The madness. Every single era. My entire life’s work."

Taylor Swift confirms she now owns her masters in a letter to fans. Picture: TaylorSwift.com

Taylor went on to thank the fans for supporting her re-recording project, for buying and streaming all the Taylor's Version albums and for making The Eras Tour into a massive success.

"To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it," she continued. "To my fans, you know how important this has been to me — so much so that I meticulously re-recorded and released four of my albums, calling them Taylor’s Version.

"The passionate support you showed those albums and the success story you turned The Eras Tour into is why I was able to buy back my music. I can’t thank you enough for helping to reunite me with this art that I have dedicated my life to, but have never owned until now."

The move means that Taylor now officially owns all her albums, her music videos, concert films, album art and unreleased songs.

Taylor Swift revealed the success of The Eras Tour meant she was able to buy her masters back. Picture: Getty

As the letter continues, Taylor goes on to thank Shamrock Capital for "being the first people to ever offer this to me".

"The way they’ve handled every interaction we’ve had has been honest, fair, and respectful," she said of the company who purchased her masters from Scooter Braun back in 2020. "This was a business deal to them, but I really felt like they saw it for what it was to me: My memories and my sweat and my handwriting and my decades of dreams.

"I am endlessly thankful. My first tattoo might just be a huge shamrock in the middle of my forehead.

Elsewhere in the letter, Taylor addressed the fact that she still has two more albums left to re-record and release but sadly, only one of them will likely see the light of day... and it won't be Reputation (Taylor's Version).

'Reputation (Taylor's Version)' will no longer be released in full. Picture: Big Machine Records

Unfortunately for Swifties who had been theorising for a looong time on the potential release date of Rep (TV), the singer's announcement came with the revelation that she'd not finish re-recording it and that she probably never will.

"Full transparency: I haven’t even re-recorded a quarter of it. The Reputation album was so specific to that time in my life, and I kept hitting a stopping point when I tried to remake it," she said. "All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposely misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief."

"To be perfectly honest, it’s the one album in the first 6 that I thought couldn’t be improved upon by redoing it. Not the music, or photos, or videos. So I kept putting it off. There will be a time (if you’re into the idea) for the unreleased Vault tracks from that album to hatch."

Taylor has already teased the Reputation (TV) vault tracks, calling them "fire". It's currently unclear when she will share them with fans.

It's alo currently unclear if she will release the Reputation tracks that she had already re-recorded, like 'Look What You Made Me Do' and 'Delicate' – both of which have already been teased.

Taylor Swift has fully re-recorded Debut (TV) and will now release it as a celebration. Picture: Big Machine Records

For fans hoping to hear her re-recorded version of her debut album, it's great news. In her letter, Taylor confirmed that she had already finished re-recording the songs.

"I’ve already completely re-recorded my entire debut album, and I really love how it sounds now," she wrote. "Those 2 albums can still have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right, if that would be something you guys would be excited about.

"But if it happens, it won’t be from a place of sadness and longing for what I wish I could have. It will just be a celebration now."

Taylor said she was elated to own her masters. Picture: Getty

And in a nod to the impact this entire journey has had on the music industry today, Taylor finally added in the letter: “Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recordings in their record contract because of this fight, I’m reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen.

“Thank you for being curious about something that used to be thought of as too industry-centric for broad discussion. You’ll never know how much it means to me that you cared. Every single bit of it counted and ended us up here.”