Taylor Swift Regains Rights to Her First Six Studio Albums

Taylor Swift announced that she has regained the rights to the early albums in her extensive catalog.

The pop superstar unveiled this news via social media, where she posted two photos of herself with her first six albums: 2006's Taylor Swift, 2008's Fearless, 2010's Speak Now, 2012's Red, 2014's 1989, and 2017's Reputation. She captioned the images, "You belong with me. Letter on my site :)"

The lengthy letter reads, in part, "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."

Swift continues, "To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it. To my fans, you know how important this has been to me - so much so that I meticulously re-recorded and released 4 of my albums, calling them Taylor's Version. The passionate support you showed those albums and the success story you turned The Eras Tour into is why I was able to buy back my music. I can't thank you enough for helping to reunite me with this art that I have dedicated my life to, but have never owned until now."

The master recordings of Swift's first six studio albums were infamously sold to Scooter Braun in 2019, which were then acquired by Shamrock Capital in 2020. The New York Times notes that Shamrock Capital paid over $300 million for Swift's masters from her first six albums. Swift did not disclose how much she paid Shamrock Capital for these masters, but considering the insane success of The Eras Tour, the price tag was likely massive.

Of course, this whole ordeal with these masters is what led Swift to record the "Taylor's Version" of four of her first six albums. Reputation was on deck to be the next release. So, what's going on with that? Swift addressed this in her letter, writing, "Full transparency: I haven't re-recorded a quarter of it. The Reputation album was so specific to that time in my life, and I kept hitting a stopping point when I tried to remake it ... There will be a time (if you're into the idea) for the unreleased Vault tracks from that album to hatch."

Swift says she also finished re-recording her self-titled debut. However, she writes about the "Taylor's Version" of her debut and Reputation, "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. 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 closed her letter by thanking her fans for their support during this ordeal, which she referred to as "something that used to be thought of as too industry-centric for broad discussion."

She signed the letter, "Elated and amazed, Taylor."