NEW YORK – Taylor Swift has bought back the rights to her first six albums, ending a long-running battle over the ownership of her music. “All of the music I’ve ever made now belongs to me,” said the star, announcing the news on her official website. “I’ve been bursting into tears of joy… ever since I found out this is really happening.” The saga began in June 2019, when music manager Scooter Braun bought Swift’s former record label Big Machine and, with it, all of the songs from Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation. Swift had personal objections to the deal, blaming Braun for complicity in the “incessant, manipulative bullying” against her by Kanye West, one of his clients. On her website, Swift said that reclaiming the rights to her music had, for a long time, seemed unimaginable. “To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it,” she added, thanking fans for their support as the drama played out. “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.
“I almost stopped thinking it could ever happen, after 20 years of having the carrot dangled and then yanked away,” she wrote. “But that’s all in the past now.” In the music industry, the owner of a master recording controls the way it is distributed and licenced. The artist still earns royalties, but controlling the masters offers protection over how the work is used in future. Swift responded to the original sale of her masters by vowing to re-record those records, effectively diminishing the value of those master tapes, and putting ownership back in her hands. To date, she has released four re-recorded albums – known as “Taylor’s Versions” – with dozens of bonus tracks and supplementary material.
In her letter, the star told fans she had yet to complete the project, after “hitting a stopping point” while trying to remake 2017’s Reputation album – which dealt with public scrutiny of her private life, and the fall-out of her feud with Kanye West. “The Reputation album was so specific to that time in my life,” she explained. “All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposefully misunderstood…
“To be perfectly honest, it’s the one album in those first six that I thought couldn’t be improved by re-doing it… so I kept putting it off.” Last week, the star previewed the new version of Reputation’s first single, Look What You Made Me Do, in an episode of The Handmaid’s Tale – but her letter suggested that a full re-recording would be delayed or even scrapped. However, she promised that vault tracks from the record would be released at a future date, if fans were “into the idea”.
She also confirmed that she had re-recorded her self-titled debut, adding: “I really love how it sounds now”.
“Those two albums can still have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right,” she added.
“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.”
