music
Who Owns Taylor Swift's Masters? She Owns All Twelve Albums After the 2025 Buyback
In brief
Who owns Taylor Swift's music now?
On May 30, 2025, Taylor Swift bought back the master recordings of her first six albums from Shamrock Capital. Neither side disclosed the price. Combined with her ownership of every album from Lover (2019) through The Life of a Showgirl (2025) - twelve studio albums in all - plus the four released "Taylor's Version" re-records, she owns every master she has made.
Her songwriting sits under a separate arrangement: Swift moved her publishing to Universal Music Publishing Group in February 2020, ending a run with Sony/ATV that began when she signed there at 14. On the recordings, a six-year public battle has effectively closed.
The deal that ended the battle
On Friday, May 30, 2025, Swift posted an open letter to her website announcing she had purchased the masters, music videos, concert films, album art, photography, and unreleased material covering her first six studio albums from Shamrock Capital. No price was officially disclosed. Billboard reported that Shamrock sold the catalog back "for an amount relatively close to what they paid for it - which sources tell Billboard was around $360 million". billboard.com
That figure is a report, not a disclosure. A source close to the negotiations told USA Today that no outside party encouraged the sale and that any rumored price range being reported was "highly inaccurate". usatoday.com Reported figures for what Shamrock paid Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings in 2020 vary too: Variety put that deal "north of $300 million" when it broke in November 2020, while Billboard has since reported it at both $405 million and around $360 million. variety.com
Swift framed the purchase as the closing of a personal chapter, writing that she was "endlessly thankful" to Shamrock for handling negotiations in what she described as an "honest, fair, and respectful" way. Braun, the manager whose 2019 acquisition of Big Machine Label Group triggered the original dispute, gave a one-line statement: "I am happy for her." nbcnews.com
All of the music I've ever made now belongs to me.
What the buyback actually includes
The Shamrock package covers the six albums Swift recorded under her 2005 Big Machine deal - Taylor Swift (2006), Fearless (2008), Speak Now (2010), Red (2012), 1989 (2014), and Reputation (2017). According to Swift's letter and contemporaneous trade reporting, the transfer included:
- The master sound recordings in all formats.
- Music videos and concert films from those eras.
- Album artwork, promotional photography, and unreleased archival material.
Swift described the agreement as having "no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy" - a straight buyback rather than a joint-venture arrangement.
Current ownership of every Taylor Swift studio album
Swift has released twelve studio albums. The most recent, The Life of a Showgirl, came out on October 3, 2025 through Republic Records. hollywoodreporter.com She owns the master recordings of all twelve, along with the four re-recorded albums.
| Album | Master owner | Original label |
|---|---|---|
| Taylor Swift (2006) | Taylor Swift (from May 2025) | Big Machine Records |
| Fearless (2008) | Taylor Swift (from May 2025) | Big Machine Records |
| Speak Now (2010) | Taylor Swift (from May 2025) | Big Machine Records |
| Red (2012) | Taylor Swift (from May 2025) | Big Machine Records |
| 1989 (2014) | Taylor Swift (from May 2025) | Big Machine Records |
| Reputation (2017) | Taylor Swift (from May 2025) | Big Machine Records |
| Lover (2019) | Taylor Swift | Republic Records |
| Folklore (2020) | Taylor Swift | Republic Records |
| Evermore (2020) | Taylor Swift | Republic Records |
| Midnights (2022) | Taylor Swift | Republic Records |
| The Tortured Poets Department (2024) | Taylor Swift | Republic Records |
| The Life of a Showgirl (2025) | Taylor Swift | Republic Records |
The split in that last column is what the whole dispute was about. The first six albums came out on Big Machine Records, which owned their masters; when Swift signed a global recording agreement with Universal Music Group in November 2018, with Republic Records as her US label, she said the new contract meant "I own all of my master recordings that I make from now on." variety.com universalmusic.com
What happens to the Taylor's Versions
Four re-recordings have been released and remain on streaming services: Fearless (Taylor's Version) in April 2021, Red (Taylor's Version) in November 2021, Speak Now (Taylor's Version) in July 2023, and 1989 (Taylor's Version) in October 2023. All four came out on Republic Records, and Swift owns those masters herself.
Two albums sit in a different place. In her May 2025 letter Swift wrote that she had "already completely re-recorded my entire debut album, and I really love how it sounds now" - but it has not been released. On Reputation she was blunter: "I haven't even re-recorded a quarter of it," adding that the original was tied so closely to a specific moment in her life that she kept "hitting a stopping point" when she tried to remake it. Both albums, she said, "can still have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right." usatoday.com As of August 2026 neither has come out.
How we got here: a 20-year timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2005 | Swift signs with Big Machine Records at 15. Standard label deal: the label owns the masters. |
| Nov 2018 | Signs a global recording agreement with Universal Music Group, with Republic Records as her US label. She owns the masters on every album she makes from then on. |
| Jun 2019 | Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings acquires Big Machine Label Group, and with it the early masters. A source told Billboard the deal topped $300M. Swift publicly denounces the sale. |
| Aug 2019 | Swift confirms she intends to re-record her back catalog as soon as her Big Machine contract allows. |
| Nov 2020 | Ithaca sells the masters to Shamrock Capital. No price is disclosed; Variety reports it as north of $300M. Swift rejects Shamrock's offer of a partnership. |
| Apr 2021 | Fearless (Taylor's Version) released - the first re-record, and a number one debut. |
| Nov 2021 | Red (Taylor's Version), featuring the 10-minute "All Too Well." |
| Jul 2023 | Speak Now (Taylor's Version). |
| Oct 2023 | 1989 (Taylor's Version). The Eras Tour pushes catalog streams to record highs. |
| May 30, 2025 | Swift buys the original masters back from Shamrock Capital. Price undisclosed. She now owns every master she has made. |
| Oct 3, 2025 | The Life of a Showgirl, her twelfth studio album, is released on Republic Records - hers from day one. |
Sources for the timeline: Billboard on the 2019 Big Machine acquisition billboard.com, the BBC on Swift's August 2019 re-recording plan bbc.com, Variety on the 2020 Shamrock sale variety.com, and CBS News on the announcement of her twelfth album cbsnews.com.
Publishing: a separate deal, and not with Sony
Master recordings are only half of music ownership. The other half - the songwriting copyright - has always followed a different path, and Swift held on to it throughout the masters fight. Big Machine owned the recordings of the first six albums, but because Swift wrote or co-wrote the songs she kept the publishing side, which is also what made re-recording them possible.
Her publisher is Universal Music Publishing Group, not Sony. Swift signed an exclusive global publishing deal with UMPG, announced on February 6, 2020. It ended her run with Sony/ATV Music Publishing (now Sony Music Publishing), which she joined at 14 and whose contract Variety reported was believed to have expired at the end of 2019. variety.com The commercial terms of that deal have never been made public.
The Shamrock buyback covered recordings, not compositions, so it changed nothing on the publishing side.
Why this matters beyond Swift
Catalog valuations
- Re-records can erode the value of an asset a fund just bought.
- Future buyers will price in an "artist re-record" discount.
Artist leverage
- Public campaigns now precede catalog exits, not the other way round.
- Fan-driven streaming migrations are a credible threat.
Deal structure
- Moral-approval clauses and re-record windows are now standard asks.
- Sellers face shorter holds before pressure to flip.
Frequently asked questions
Does Taylor Swift now own all her music?
Yes. She owns the masters to all twelve of her studio albums: the first six were bought back from Shamrock Capital on May 30, 2025, and everything from Lover (2019) to The Life of a Showgirl (October 2025) has been hers since release. She also owns the four released "Taylor's Version" re-records.
How much did the buyback cost?
Nobody has said. Billboard reported that Shamrock sold the catalog back for an amount close to what it had paid, which its sources put at around $360 million, but a source close to the negotiations told USA Today that any rumored price range being reported was "highly inaccurate". Reported figures for the 2020 sale to Shamrock range from "north of $300 million" (Variety, at the time) to $405 million (Billboard, 2022).
Will Reputation (Taylor's Version) ever come out?
Possibly. Swift said in her May 2025 letter that she had not re-recorded even a quarter of it, and that the original Reputation was tied to a specific moment she struggled to reproduce. She has not ruled out a release, but has set no date, and nothing had appeared as of August 2026.
What about the debut album re-record?
It is finished but still unreleased as of August 2026. Swift wrote that she had "already completely re-recorded" the debut and really loves how it sounds now, and that it could re-emerge "when the time is right."
Who owns her songwriting?
Swift writes or co-writes everything she records and kept the publishing side throughout the masters dispute. Her compositions are published through Universal Music Publishing Group under an exclusive global deal announced in February 2020, which ended her long run with Sony/ATV. The terms have not been disclosed.
What happens to the Taylor's Versions on streaming?
They remain available. Both the original and re-recorded versions of each album now flow income to Swift, so the practical reason for fans to favor one over the other has effectively disappeared.
Key takeaways
The bottom line
- Swift bought back the first six albums' masters from Shamrock Capital on May 30, 2025. No price was disclosed; Billboard's sources put it near the roughly $360M Shamrock had paid, and Swift's side calls circulating figures inaccurate.
- She already owned every album from Lover (2019) forward under her November 2018 UMG/Republic deal, up to and including The Life of a Showgirl in October 2025. Her catalog now runs to twelve studio albums.
- All four released "Taylor's Version" re-records remain hers. As of August 2026 the debut re-record is finished but unreleased, and Reputation is under a quarter re-recorded.
- Her songwriting is published by Universal Music Publishing Group, not Sony - she moved in February 2020, having been with Sony/ATV since she was 14. The buyback did not touch publishing.
- The six-year ownership battle is effectively closed.
Final word
For anyone searching who owns Taylor Swift's music, the answer is finally simple: she does. A 20-year arc that started with a teenager signing a standard label deal has ended with the artist buying her own catalog back - and a playbook every artist's lawyer will now study.