Mine — at last: Taylor Swift reclaims entire music catalogue

Taylor Swift has finally regained ownership of her original albums six years after the catalogue was sold by her original record label giving the multi-platinum recording artist sole control of her entire catalogue of music, music videos, concert performances, unreleased songs, and album art.

“All the music I’ve ever made now belongs to me,” Swift said in a letter to her fans on her website.

The coveted catalogue was originally the property of Swift’s old music label, Big Machine Label Group, which was eventually acquired by Ithaca Holdings, owned by controversial music impresario Scooter Braun. Swift’s attempts to regain control while at Big Machine was repeatedly frustrated by offers which would give her back one album at a time for each new one she released, forcing the singer to make the difficult decision to leave the label and her catalogue behind.

Unable to regain control through Ithaca (Braun would only negotiate if she signed an NDA that would prevent her from speaking negatively about him), Swift began to re-record her first six albums, diluting the value of the original recordings. In 2020 Ithaca sold the catalogue to Shamrock Capital which eventually negotiated a deal to sell her the original catalogue for an undisclosed sum, although sources cited by Rolling Stone put the figure at ~$300M.

“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, not partnerships, with full autonomy. I will be forever grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to offer this to me,” Swift said in the letter.

The singer plans to re-release her original Big Machine albums under her current record label, Republic Records, a division of Universal Music Group (OTCPK:UMGNF) (OTCPK:UNVGY).

Related tickers: Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG), Sony Music Entertainment (NYSE:SONY).