Taylor Swift officially owns her entire music catalog
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Taylor Swift speaks onstage during the 67th Annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 2 in Los Angeles,. Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Taylor Swift bought the rights to her first six albums, the mega pop star announced Friday, culminating a years-long quest to obtain control over her earliest work.
Why it matters: In her pursuit of owning her music, Swift has captivated her fan base with "Taylor's Version" re-recordings of her studio albums including "1989," "Red," "Speak Now" and "Fearless" in recent years.
- The project drew broader attention to her fight with music executive Scooter Braun and opened a debate on what ownership artists should have over their work.
- Braun, who has also worked with Swift antagonizer Kanye West — now Ye — purchased the rights to Swift's earlier music from her first record label, Big Machine, in 2019.
- He sold the master recordings to Los Angeles-based private equity firm Shamrock Capital in 2020.
- Axios has reached out to Shamrock for details on the sale, which Billboard reported could have been around $360 million.
What she's saying: "All of the music I've ever made... now belongs... to me," Swift wrote in a post on her website.
- The work includes music videos, concert films, album art and photography — and yes, for all the curious Swifties — the unreleased songs.
- There were two more albums left in her re-recording project: her self-titled debut and "Reputation," which fans have been highly anticipating.
- She revealed that her debut is re-recorded. But she has not "even re-recorded a quarter" of "Reputation: Taylor's Version," which she found difficult to execute and unlikely to improve the original work. But fear not: "there will be a time" for the unreleased vault tracks from that album "to hatch," she wrote.
The bottom line: "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, full autonomy," she wrote.
- Shamrock Capital was the first to ever "offer this to me," she added.
- Never to leave her audience without a nugget of news: Her first tattoo may just be a three-leaf clover.
Go deeper: Taylor Swift's Eras Tour brought in a record $2 billion-plus
