Taylor Swift reclaims her masters, shares powerful letter: 'My greatest dream come true'
Taylor Swift's masters are now hers.
The singer shared the news in a moving letter on her official website Friday, writing, "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," she added.
Swift went on to say that she was able to buy back her music from its current owner, Shamrock Capital, "with no strings attached" thanks to the support for her re-recordings, as well as the success of her global Eras Tour.
She thanked the company for being "the first people to ever offer this to me," noting that their interactions have been "honest, fair, and respectful."
She added, "My first tattoo just might be a huge shamrock in the middle of my forehead."
Shamrock first purchased Swift's recordings in 2020 amid her feud with music executive Scooter Braun. The two had been at odds since Braun purchased Big Machine Label Group in 2019, Swift's former record label, assuming the rights to her master recordings.
Swift had previously announced on "Good Morning America" in 2019 that she would be re-recording her albums to take ownership of the records that made her a household name. Since then, she has released four re-recorded albums including "Fearless (Taylor's Version)" and "Red (Taylor's Version)" in 2021, and "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" and "1989 (Taylor's Version)" in 2023.
The last two albums left in her re-recording project were her self-titled debut album, which she originally released in 2006, and "Reputation," which was originally released in 2017.
In her letter Friday, Swift addressed those two remaining albums, saying she "hasn't re-recorded a quarter" of "Reputation" yet.
"The Reputation album was specific to that time in my life, and I kept hitting a stopping point when I tried to remake it," she wrote. "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. Not the music, or photos, or videos. So I kept putting it off."
While the release of "Reputation (Taylor's Version)" may not be in the cards just yet, Swift did suggest that "unreleased Vault tracks" may still come.
As for her debut album, Swift said that she had already "completely re-recorded" it, adding, "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," she wrote. "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."
Swift ended her message by writing how "extremely heartened" she felt 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," she wrote.
"Thank you for being curious about something that used to be thought of as too industry-centric for broad discussion," she added. "You'll never know how much it means to me that you cared. Every single bit of it counted and ended us up here."
