Taylor Swift just dropped a gossip bomb—she has bought back her masters. In a letter published on her website, she states she was able to buy back her masters, along with the rights to her music videos, concert films, album art, unreleased songs, “the memories, the magic, the madness”, “every single era”, and “my entire life’s work”.
The Taylor Swift catalog is now Taylor’s, lock, stock, and barrel.
This is the culmination of a years’ long string of disappointments, as Taylor first lost the chance to buy back her work in 2019, when her catalog was sold to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings. Braun then turned around and re-sold her catalog to Shamrock Capital, and Taylor devoted herself to a project re-recording and re-releasing her work as “Taylor’s Versions”. But then…the TV project stalled with Reputation. Fans kept expecting and it kept not coming.
Taylor says she got stuck on Rep TV, not “even re-record[ing] a quarter of it”, because it’s “so specific to that time in [her] life”. So she couldn’t get into the mood because she’s no longer feeling the sting of snake drama so keenly? Whatever, I wonder if at least PART of the problem is that Shamrock Capital maybe reached out about selling Taylor her own catalog and that became her focus.
She expresses thanks to Shamrock, calling them “the first people to ever offer this to me”, and calling their interactions “honest, fair, and respectful”. She acknowledges that it was a “business deal”, but you can feel her sincerity that she believes someone over there understood how important this was to her and worked to find a deal that satisfied everyone. Her gratitude is palpable.
She also says this was made possible by fans’ “passionate support” for her re-recording project, and the Eras Tour. So…this is how she spent her Eras money? If so, I love it for her. Do a banger tour, buy back your own work. All she’s doing is winning. (She was also out last night at Via Carota. Celebrating?)
And that’s what this is, right? A mega-win for Taylor Swift, already one of pop culture’s biggest winners of the last twenty years. Losing her catalog to Scooter Braun is the biggest L she’s ever taken—bigger than the snake thing, because ultimately, one is gossip and one is WORK—but now she owns her work, all of it, outright and in full. And in the process of pursuing ownership of her work, she’s started a larger conversation about artists owning their own work (see also: Ryan Coogler and Sinners). She specifically says in her letter that other artists have thanked her for going public with her catalog fight, because they in turn went out and negotiated to own their work in their record deals.
Will it change the music industry? Probably not seismically and not overnight. Taylor Swift is hugely powerful, and incredibly rich, and it took both of those things to make this happen, not every artist has that power or capability. But it might move the needle a little bit overall, emphasizing the rights of artists to keep a stake in their creative output. Artists should own their work, frankly I think ALL rights should revert in full after a set period of time, but even just keeping a percentage stake is better than artists watching others profit off their labor while the creative industries just get harder and harder to make a living.
Lainey will have more on Monday, but um…now that she’s slain this dragon, what is there left for her to fight? Don’t tell me TSwift doesn’t love a good fight. She loves to be an underdog, and she loves to win. What, or who, is next for pop music’s triumphant champion?
We are, of course, Squawking about Taylor today. Join us! (App link here)
