By: Jessica A. Dennehy
May 30th, 2025, at 6:18 PM ET: A handwritten letter quietly appeared on the website of one of the biggest names in modern music, delivering the kind of news that once felt more like a fan theory than a future. In it, Taylor Swift revealed—alongside a series of photographs where she clutched the iconic covers of her early albums—that she finally owns the master recordings of them all.
After over two decades of ambition, re-recordings, legal roadblocks, and heartbreak disguised as business deals, she now holds the keys to the songs that made her a legend. In her distinctive scrawl—the same one that’s appeared in lyric books, signed Polaroids, and love letters to her fans—she wrote, “All of the music I’ve ever made… now belongs to me. 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.”
But this ending was always part of the story. To understand why this moment matters, the story must be traced from its beginning. The significance of Swift’s announcement can only be fully grasped by revisiting the past—before the legal battles and the re-records. Before the long fight to reclaim both the songs and the autonomy behind them.
Between 2006 and 2017, Taylor Swift released six studio albums, all under Big Machine Records. These albums—Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation—stand as a record of her transformation from country prodigy to global pop phenomenon. Songs like “Love Story,” “You Belong With Me,” “Blank Space,” “Shake It Off,” and “Look What You Made Me Do” became cultural landmarks of the 21st-century music scene.
However, there was a catch. Despite Swift’s monumental success, her original contract with Big Machine stipulated that she would have no ownership of the masters—the original recordings—of her music. Signing at the age of just 15, she agreed to a contract that gave the label full control. Although Swift retained her publishing rights by virtue of writing or co-writing all of her songs, her control over how that music was used was limited. A master is the original source of a song; all subsequent versions—vinyls, CDs, and digital downloads—stem from this single recording. The master’s owner receives the majority of royalties and retains legal authority over licensing and distribution.
That contract clause made headlines in June 2019 when Big Machine, along with the masters of Swift’s first six albums, was sold to Ithaca Holdings, a company helmed by music executive Scooter Braun. The sale, valued at approximately $300 million, gave Braun ownership over Swift’s early catalog. Swift, who learned of the acquisition “as it was announced to the world,” stated that no fair opportunity had been provided for her to purchase the rights herself. In her words: “All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years… Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.” She publicly condemned the deal and accused Braun of bullying—sometimes in collaboration with his clients, including Kanye West.
The outcry from fans was swift and overwhelming. Supporters, critics, and artists alike joined the conversation, exposing the exploitative nature of standard music contracts that often leave even the most successful artists without control of their work. Swift refused to negotiate under what she called “silencing terms,” including a nondisclosure agreement that would prevent her from speaking critically of Braun.
The following year, in 2020, Braun sold the catalog again—this time to private equity firm Shamrock Capital, for another $300 million. Shamrock reached out to Swift with interest in partnering, but she declined, citing Braun’s continued financial involvement in the deal. Still, she acknowledged the professionalism of Shamrock’s approach. Recognizing that regaining ownership on those terms would not restore creative control, she pivoted.
And thus, Taylor’s Version was born. Starting in 2021 with Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Swift launched one of the most ambitious and successful reclamation efforts in the history of music. Every track from the original six albums was to be re-recorded. Thanks to the publishing rights she always held, these re-recordings came with enhanced sound quality, new videos, and bonus songs “From the Vault.” The strategy was clear: fans were encouraged to stream and buy the new versions, diverting revenue away from Braun and back into Swift’s hands. This bold and personal mission only further cemented her image as a deliberate and strategic artist.
By 2023, four of the six albums had been re-recorded, with 1989 (Taylor’s Version) being the most recent. Each new version outperformed its predecessor on charts and streaming platforms, leading to a dramatic decline in traffic to the Big Machine originals. While the nostalgic pull of the early versions lingered, fans largely chose not to support the recordings still owned by those who once kept them from Swift. The same nostalgic thread tugged at Swift herself, who remained hopeful that one day the original masters would find their way back to her.
In the years that followed, Swift shifted focus. She released a brand-new studio album and mounted The Eras Tour, her most expansive concert experience to date. Covering nearly two decades of material across numerous continents, the tour—and its accompanying concert film—became a cultural juggernaut. Fans filled stadiums, snapped up merchandise, and contributed to Swift’s growing net worth, which crossed into the billions. That monumental success enabled her to reach the one goal that had always lingered just out of reach: buying back the masters outright, free from conditions.
“All I’ve ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to one day purchase my music outright,” Swift wrote in her May 2025 letter. “No partnership. Full autonomy.”
Undeniably a win for fans across the globe, a lingering question remains: What’s next for the re-recordings of her final two Big Machine-era albums, Taylor Swift and Reputation? According to Swift, her debut album has been fully re-recorded, while work on Reputation (TV) continues. “I haven’t even re-recorded a quarter of [Reputation],” she confessed. “That defiance, that longing to be understood… I kept hitting a stopping point.” But now, that burden has been lifted.
“There will be a time (if you’re into the idea) for the unreleased Vault tracks from that album to hatch… 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.”
The industry may never be the same. And neither will the fans, now able to relive every memory, every era, every note—knowing it all belongs to her.