Taylor Swift announced on Friday (May 30) she has regained ownership of her master recordings from Shamrock Capital, the private equity firm that purchased them from Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings in late 2020. According to sources, Shamrock sold Swift’s catalog back to her for an amount relatively close to what they paid for it — which sources tell Billboard was around $360 million.
In a message posted on her website, Swift says: “All the times I was this 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. 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.”
“To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it,” she adds.
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07/03/2019The saga of Swift’s masters goes back to June 2019, when Ithaca purchased Big Machine Label Group, which owned the master recordings to Swift’s first six albums, for an estimated $300 million. Swift’s catalog was worth at least half of that amount, according to estimates at the time. Over the years, Swift has very publicly declared her displeasure with the shuffling around of her masters and, in 2019, began re-recording those Big Machine albums in order to restore control over her songs from a commercial standpoint.
Her re-recording journey began with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in April 2021, followed by Red (Taylor’s Version) in November 2021. In 2023, she released Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version), each topping the Billboard 200 chart. Fans are still anticipating the re-recording of her self-titled debut and her final Big Machine LP, Reputation. Since leaving Big Machine in November 2018, she’s released five additional albums on Republic Records: Lover (2019), Folkore (2020), Evermore (2020), Midnights (2022) and The Tortured Poets Department (2024). 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.
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11/16/2020Swift was not involved in Shamrock’s 2020 purchase of her music. “This was the second time my music had been sold without my knowledge,” she said at the time.
Shamrock’s 2020 statement about acquiring Swift’s catalog from Ithaca emphasized their admiration for her artistry and the value of her music. They described Swift as a “transcendent artist” with a “timeless catalog” and said their investment was driven by belief in the long-term potential of her work. While they had hoped to partner with her directly, they acknowledged and respected her decision not to be involved. Shamrock expressed appreciation for Swift’s professionalism and conveyed interest in collaborating with her in the future.
Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, given that sources close to the negotiations say Swift paid a price close to the $360-million price tag Shamrock paid back in 2021, that would imply Shamrock did not make much, if any, profit off the sale of the assets. However, the financial firm with ties to Disney still made a profit of around $100 million in total over the three plus years it owned the records. The six albums and two live albums that Swift recorded when she was signed to Big Machine generated roughly $60 million a year on average globally from 2022 to 2024, according to Billboard’s estimates based on Luminate data. Distribution, marketing and royalty payments to Swift likely consumed about 50% of that revenue, leaving Shamrock with an annual profit of around $30 million a year.
In 2023, Billboard reported that the re-recordings of Swift’s albums Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) were vastly out-streaming their originals since the new versions were released, with the new Fearless earning three times the equivalent album units as the original, and the new Red as much as 10 times the original.
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11/18/2020As of May 22 according to Luminate, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) has racked up 2.3 million equivalent album units to the original’s 8.6 million U.S. units, despite the latter having a more than 12 year head start; Red (Taylor’s Version) has accumulated 5.18 million equivalent album units to the original’s 9.16 million U.S. units, despite the latter having been released nearly 10 years prior to the re-recording; Fearless (Taylor’s Version) has accrued 3.0 million equivalent album units to the original’s 11.7 million U.S. units, the latter having had a 13-year head start; and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) has earned 4.87 million equivalent album units to the original’s 14.6 million, with a nine year gap in release dates.
Overall, Swift’s catalog has racked up 116.77 million equivalent album units in the United States over the years, according to Luminate, stretching back to her self-titled debut album in 2006. She has sold 54 million albums in the U.S. and generated 70.746 billion streams.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Dilts Marshall and Dan Rys.
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