Taylor Swift’s recent purchase of her master recordings reportedly came at a staggering cost, according to a new report.
On May 30, Swift confirmed via her official website that she had successfully bought back her masters, which she described as her “entire life’s work.”
The singer originally lost ownership of the master recordings for her first six albums in 2019, following the expiration of her contract with Big Machine Label Group the previous year.
The rights were later acquired by music executive Scooter Braun—former manager of Justin Bieber—through his company Ithaca Holdings. In late 2020, they were sold again, this time to investment firm Shamrock Capital.
However, after ’20 years of having the carrot dangled and then yanked away’, Swift managed to retain the rights once more, as she said: “All the times I was this close, reaching out for it, only for it to fall through.”
She continued: “But that’s all in the past now… I really get to say these words: All of the music I’ve ever made… now belongs to me.
Taylor Swift confirmed in a statement she had bought back her masters (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
All of 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.”
A recent report from Billboard has since claimed that she paid a pretty penny for them.
Various rumors alleged that the amount Swift had paid was between $600 million and $1 billion; however, other reports from publications like The Guardian have said that these figures are inaccurate.
According to Billboard, Shamrock was initially sold the rights for around $360 million and had reportedly sold it to Swift for close to what they’d originally paid for it.
In her message, Swift also praised Shamrock for how they handled the entire transaction, adding: “I will be forever grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to ever offer this to me.
“The way they’ve handled every interaction we’ve had has been honest, fair and respectful. This was a business deal to them, but I really felt like they saw it for what it was to me: my memories and my sweat and my handwriting and my decades of dreams.
Swift also thanked her fans for enabling her to make the purchase (Kevin Winter/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
“I am endlessly thankful. My first tattoo might just be a huge shamrock in the middle of my forehead.”
Shamrock themselves also issued a statement on their website, writing: “We are thrilled with this outcome and are so happy for Taylor.”
Meanwhile, Braun also spoke about the purchase, telling The Independent: “I am happy for her.”
Her message reiterated how ‘important it was for all of this to happen’, as she said she was ‘extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans’.
“Thank you for being curious about something that used to be thought of as too industry-centric for broad discussion. You’ll never know how much it means to me that you cared. Every single bit of it counted, and ended us up here.” she concluded.
