Taylor Swift has announced she has bought the rights to all of her music, ending a years-long and bitter feud over ownership.
The global pop sensation said she has purchased the rights to all of her concert films, music videos, album art and photography, as well as unreleased songs, in an announcement on her website on Friday.
Swift, 35, also confirmed she will release Taylor’s Version re-recordings of her self-titled and Reputation albums.
‘My greatest dream come true’
In the announcement, the singer said: “I’m trying to gather my thoughts into something coherent, but right now my mind is just a slideshow. 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 this 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 to say these words, all of the music I’ve ever made now belongs to me.
“And all 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.
“To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it.”
Swift also thanked her fans for their “passionate support”, which she said is “why I was able to buy back my music”.
The singer added: “I can’t thank you enough for helping to reunite me with this art that I have dedicated my life to, but have never owned until now.”
Swift said the process of gaining ownership of her work was “honest, fair, and respectful” and said she was “endlessly thankful” to private equity firm Shamrock Capital, which offered her the deal. In a post on LinkedIn, Shamrock Capital said: “We are thrilled with this outcome and are so happy for Taylor.” The value of the deal has not been disclosed.
‘It will be a celebration’
The singer announced plans to re-record all her songs in 2019 following a dispute with retired talent manager Scooter Braun after he acquired the recordings of her first six studio albums when he bought her former label. Though the masters changed hands again after a deal with Shamrock Capital, Swift continued with a bid to regain ownership of the music by creating new versions of the songs.
She has been re-recording all of her albums, re-releasing them as “Taylor’s Version”. To date, Swift has released new versions of her previous albums Fearless (2008), Red (2012), Speak Now (2010) and 1989 (2014), with Reputation and her self-titled debut yet to be re-released as Taylor’s Versions. In the announcement, Swift spoke about plans to release Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version), originally released in 2006, and Reputation (Taylor’s Version), which was originally released in 2017.
She added: “I know, I know. What about (Reputation (Taylor’s Version)? Full transparency, I haven’t even re-recorded a quarter of it. The Reputation album was so specific to that time in my life, and I kept hitting a stopping point when I tried to remake it.