Taylor Swift has been able to buy back the albums Scooter Braun took from her, then sold to Shamrock Holdings.
She writes on social media:
“To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it.” Thanking the company that sold the rights to her, she added, “All I’ve ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to one day purchase my music outright with no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy. I will be forever grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to ever offer this to me. … My first tattoo just might be a huge shamrock in the middle of my forehead.”
When Taylor left Big Machine Records, Braun and the label’s Scott Borchetta took her masters and sold them to Shamrock.
Swift went ballistic, properly, and re-recorded all the albums as “Taylor’s Version.” They outsold the original albums. Shamrock, which paid millions to Braun and Borchetta, was left hanging.
Now Shamrock has sold the masters back to Taylor for a nine figure sum. She can afford it. She’s a billionaire.
She writes:
“I’m trying to gather my thoughts into something coherent, but right now my mind is just A flashback sequence of all the times I daydreamed about, wished for, and pined away’ for a chance to get to tell you this news. All the times I was thiiiiis close, reaching out for it, only for it to fall through. I almost stopped thinking it could ever happen, after 20 years of having the carrot dangled and then yanked away. But that’s all in the past now. I’ve been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found out that this is really happening. I really get say to say these words:
“All of the music I’ve ever made… now belongs… to me.”
Now there will be two versions of all the original albums available in all formats.
What a crazy story. All that work Taylor did to make the re-recordings! Of course, she made a lot of money from them, too.
