You Belong With Me: Taylor Swift’s Masters stolen, resold, and reclaimed
by Lilli Newhouse | May 30th, 2025
Image Via @TaylorSwift on instagram
On May 30th, 2025 Taylor Swift took to instagram to announce that after all this time she finally owns her life’s work, every bit of it.
“I’ve been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found out that this is really happening."
In 2019 Big Machine sold Taylor’s Masters out from under her and never gave her the opportunity to buy them herself instead, selling them to Scooter Braun who you may know as Justin Bieber's Manager. On June 30, 2019, Swift made a Tumblr post stating that she learned about Braun’s “purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world.” She also labeled him a “bully” and “the definition of toxic male privilege in our industry.”
In 2020 Braun’s Ithaca Holdings sold Swift’s masters to Shamrock Capital for $300 million. Swift said in a X post that her team had received a letter a few weeks prior from Shamrock notifying her that it had acquired her first six albums from Braun (Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and reputation.) Shamrock said that before the sale, Braun required that the firm make no contact with her or her team, or the deal would not go ahead.
After going through all of this, Taylor ultimately decided to re-record her first six albums, adding “Taylor’s Version” to each title to differentiate them from the originals. Swift also signed a historic deal with Universal Music Group which granted her full ownership over her songwriting and recordings.
Photo by Lilli Newhouse | @lnewhousephotography
Shot for Ali and Alex Blogs
Swift’s re-recorded albums – Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Red (Taylor’s Version), Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) – all debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and proved to be incredibly profitable and well loved by the fans.
Throughout all of this She also embarked upon and completed her career-defining Eras Tour, which rewrote the rules of what a concert tour could be, and massively boosted streams and sales of her entire catalog, including the re-recordings. The Eras Tour was named Tour of the Century by IheartRadio. It was an absolutely massive part of Taylor’s story and brought her and her fans closer than ever.
Despite not having yet re-recorded her first Album Taylor Swift or her sixth album reputation Taylor announced that She hasn’t finished even a quarter of Rep TV but is open to the idea of releasing the Vault Tracks for the album when the time is right, as well as stating that she has finished re-recording her debut album and that she really loves how it sounds now and will also release that when the time comes. Swift explained that those two 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.”
Whilst attempting to re-record reputation she states “I kept hitting a stopping point when I tried to remake it. 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 those first 6 that I thought couldn’t be improved upon by redoing it,"
“I really get to say these words: All of the music I’ve ever made… now belongs to me. All of 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.”
We are so extremely proud and excited for Taylor and can’t wait to see what she does next!
Read Taylor’s full message on reclaiming her masters:
Hi,
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.
To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it. 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.
All I’ve ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to one day purchase my music outright with no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy. I will be forever grateful to everyone at 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. 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.
I know, I know. What about Rep TV? 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. 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. I’ve already completely re-recorded my entire debut album, and I really love how it sounds now. 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.
I’m extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans. 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.
Thanks to you and your goodwill, teamwork and encouragement, the best things that have ever been mine… finally actually are.
Elated and amazed,
Taylor
