Today, Taylor Swift made a huge announcement that no one expected. While Swifties have been clowning over potential release dates for reputation (Taylor’s Version), Taylor Swift has been working on a much bigger project behind the scenes. As of today, Taylor Swift officially owns all of her previous work produced under the Big Machine Records label. This means that Taylor Swift now owns all of her work, from lyrics to concert videos.
Since 2019, when Taylor Swift’s previous record label was acquired by Scooter Braun, and she announced that she would record her first six albums, who owns Taylor’s music has been a point of tension for Swifties, and of course, Taylor. In November 2020, her catalog was sold again to Shamrock Holdings, and while that might seem to make them another party of villains in this story, Taylor praised them highly in the letter she shared announcing her purchase. “I will forever be grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to ever offer this to me,” she said, highlighting the fact that neither of the previous sales involved opportunities for her to purchase. “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.”
Taylor’s letter makes it clear that she didn’t think owning her full body of work was ever going to be a possibility. This has been a career-long dream for the popstar, even before the series of sales that got her to this point. Now, it’s time to celebrate. “But that’s all in the past now,” she said. “I’ve been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found out that this is really happening. I really get to say these words: All of the music I’ve ever made… now belongs… to me.”
If you’re immediately wondering what this means for the last two “Taylor’s Version” projects, well, Taylor is way ahead of you. In the letter, she reveals that she has only recorded part of the reputation (Taylor’s Version), and that “To be perfectly honest, it’s the one album in those first 6 that I thought couldn’t be improved upon by redoing it.” She shared that “Rep TV” vault tracks will “hatch” sometime in the future if fans are interested. Her debut album has also been fully re-recorded and will be something to celebrate in the future.
So, what now? We can celebrate Taylor’s success and the inspiration she has provided to artists and music industry professionals to give artists the opportunity to own their work. We can stream all of Taylor’s music, knowing that it supports her directly. We can also start clowning about her writing “this” as “thiiiiiiiiiiiis” (12 i’s if anyone’s counting) as a potential teaser for her 12th album.
