Taylor Swift performs on stage during the “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour” at Wembley Stadium on June 21, 2024 in London, England.
Jo Hale | Redferns | Getty Images
Taylor Swift now controls her entire music catalog after she bought back the master recordings of her first six albums.
“I’m trying to gather my thoughts into something coherent, but right now my mind is just a slideshow. As 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,” she said in a letter on her website Friday. “I almost stopped thinking it could happen, after 20 years of having the carrot dangled and then yanked away. But that’s all in the past now.”
Swift lost the rights in 2019 after her first record label, Big Machine, sold them to record executive Scooter Braun. In a June 2019 Tumblr post, she called it the “worst case scenario” and accused Braun of years of “incessant, manipulative bullying.”
The masters were then sold again to the investment firm Shamrock Capital. The firm said in a statement Friday that it was “thrilled with this outcome and are so happy for Taylor.”
Braun denied bullying the singer, telling Variety in 2021 that he had offered to sell her the catalog back, but her team refused. In a statement Friday, he said: “I am happy for her.”
“I’ve been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found out that this is really happening,” Swift said in her letter. “I really get to say these words: All of the music I’ve ever made… now belongs… to me.”
Swift thanked her fans — known as Swifties — for their “passionate support” of the re-recorded albums and “The Eras Tour,” saying that it helped her buy back her music.
In an attempt to regain some control, Swift had re-recorded four of her albums, calling them “Taylor’s Version.” In 2021, she released “Fearless” and “Red” and dropped “Speak Now” and “1989” in 2023.
Swift’s recently concluded tour grossed more than any other tour on record.
By the time she wrapped up in Vancouver, British Columbia, this past December, she’d been on the road for nearly two years, hitting 50 cities on five continents for 149 shows.
“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,” she said.
For years, fans have been clamoring for her to re-record and release albums “Taylor Swift” and “Reputation.” Fans have coined the term “Debutation” for their demand to have those albums redone.
The artist revealed Friday that she’s recorded all of “Taylor Swift” — with beloved songs such as “Teardrops on My Guitar” and “Tim McGraw” — but has barely made a dent into “Reputation,” with popular tunes “Delicate” and “Look What You Made Me Do.”
Those two “albums can still have their moment to re-emerge when the time is right,” Swift teased.