It's official: Every version is now "Taylor's Version."
Taylor Swift announced Friday that she officially gained ownership of her master recordings after more than six years of controversial business transactions that simultaneously prevented Swift from owning her own music while also propelling the Berks County-native to the stratosphere of A-list celebrity and multi-record-breaking years.
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In 2019, music executive Scooter Braun acquired Swift's first label company, Big Machine Label Group, which gave him commercial control of Swift's music catalog. In 2020, private equity firm Shamrock Capital bough the masters of her music from Braun.
The owner of an artist's master recordings essentially has control over the music and how it is used, while also collecting the royalties on the profit the music generates.
In a letter posted on her website, Swift said that she has bought back the rights to her music, music videos, concert films, album art and more.
"I've been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found out that this is really happening," the Berks County native wrote. "All of the music I've ever made … now belongs … to me."
Billboard reports that while details of the deal were not made public, it is estimated that Shamrock Capital sold back the rights to Swift for $360 million – around the same amount it had paid Braun for the work in 2020.
Fans took to social media to express their excitement about the future guilt-free listening to the original versions of her first six albums.
I’m so happy for Taylor Swift! She owns all of it!!!!!! I can now go back and listen to all of her original albums and not feel guilty 😭 TODAY IS A GOOD DAY!!!!! pic.twitter.com/vPiw5HCTzi
— 💫 (@heyjaeee) May 30, 2025
TAYLOR SWIFT OWNS HER MASTERS I REPEAT TAYLOR SWIFT OWNS HER MASTERS pic.twitter.com/J3bqR9r37M
— Mawce N’ Cheese (@mawceroni) May 30, 2025
Swift has been outspoken over the years about her frustration with how her work has been sold without her permission or involvement, her desire to own her music and her support for a larger movement of artists to own their work.
The public dispute among Swift, Braun, and Big Machine Label Group's executives led Swift to re-record her early music. She re-released four of her first six albums, each labeled as "Taylor's Version" to make the distinction clear to fans which music was owned by her and which wasn't.
The Taylor's Version albums often featured unreleased songs from each "era" and each topped the Billboard 200 chart. These albums were a catalyst for the global Swift-mania and inspired the singer's "Era's Tour," which became the highest-grossing world tour of all time.
"The passionate support you showed for (Taylor's Version) albums and the success story you turned The Eras Tour into is why I was able to buy back my music," Swift wrote to her fans. "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."
Two original albums had not been remain re-recorded: "Taylor Swift" and "reputation." The former being Swift's 2006 debut album that catapulted her to the public eye and the latter, released in 2017, has become known as Swift's slightly darker, 'bad girl' pop album.
While it may not be as commercially successful as some of Swift's other music, "reputation" but it developed a cult following among her fans over the years, who have been pining for its re-release. Some sleuths had predicted that the Grammy winner would announce the album's Taylor's Version this week, but Swift put those rumors to rest in her letter.
"I haven't even re-recorded a quarter of ("reputation")," Swift wrote. "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 … to be perfectly honest, it's the one album in those first six that I thought couldn't be improved upon by redoing it."
There is still hope for fans waiting to hear unreleased tracks from these eras.
"There will be a time for the unreleased vault tracks from that album to hatch," Swift said. "I've already completely re-recorded my entire debut album, and I really love how it sounds now."