Taylor Swift Buys Back Her Albums

Taylor Swift has officially prevailed in her quest to own the masters of her first six albums in a nine-figure deal with Shamrock Capital, making it one of the top ten biggest catalog acquisitions ever… and likely the biggest re-acquisition by an artist.

Why It Charts: Swift’s six-year journey to re-acquire her music led her to re-record her first six albums in a gutsy, time-intensive move, so she could profit off the music — not other rights holders. The bet paid off, with the Taylor’s Version albums becoming bonafide hits on their own, inspiring the record-breaking Eras Tour, minting Swift a billionaire, and influencing other artists to request control of their early masters.

Behind the Music: Let’s call this album Victory (Taylor’s Version).

• The deal is pegged to be close to the $300 million that Shamrock paid Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings for the rights in 2020 — a figure that Swift called “fair” and “reasonable.”
• Swift regains the rights to her albums, music videos, concert specials, and any artwork and typography associated with that era of her career (see what we did there?).
• The old albums will exist alongside the new Taylor’s Version albums, potentially making it the first time that two artist-authorized versions of the same album exist side-by-side.
• Swift said she still plans on releasing the remaining Taylor’s Version albums — her 2006 debut and 2017’s reputation. But she said she’s now in no rush to get them out there.

Last Listen: The war for Swift’s Big Machine albums (the first label she was signed to) has been the biggest rights dispute in modern music. When Swift left Big Machine for UMG in 2019, Big Machine turned around and surprisingly sold her catalog to music mogul Scooter Braun (who Swift is no fan of) without allegedly giving her the chance to make an offer. Braun’s Ithaca Holdings flipped it to Shamrock in another deal that Swift was iced out of.

Ironically, Shamrock’s deal likely wasn’t as lucrative as they hoped it would be after Swift’s re-recordings succeeded beyond expectations. The firm couldn’t exploit the catalog for ads and film and TV licensing (Swift still controlled the publishing rights to the music).

Prediction: Expect streams of Swift’s original albums to explode in popularity this year, putting them all back on the charts.