Taylor Swift Drops Bombshell: Buys Back Her Entire Music Catalog in Secret Deal—Six Years After Scooter Braun Feud! Emotional Announcement Sends Shockwaves Through Music Industry, Fans Celebrate Victory for Artists’ Rights. Did Swift Just Change the Game Forever? Details Emerge on the Pop Superstar’s Stunning, History-Making Power Move!

The saga began in 2019 when Braun purchased Big Machine Records from Scott Borchetta

Taylor Swift performing on her record-shattering Eras Tour in August 2023.Credit : Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty

Good karma has come back around for Taylor Swift. Nearly six years after her catalog was sold to Scooter Braun, sparking a series of re-recordings that helped usher in a new era of artists taking ownership over their work, Taylor Swift has regained control of her masters.

The Grammy-winning star, 35, announced in an Instagram post on Friday, May 30, that she has bought back her music catalog, giving her control of her first six albums.

“Hi. 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 thiiiiiiiiiiiiis 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 then yanked away. But that’s all in the past now,” Swift wrote in an emotional statement posted to her website. “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.”

Taylor Swift performing in March 2023.Kevin Winter/Getty

Swift continued, “To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it. To my fans, you know how important this has been to me — so much so that I meticulously re-recorded and released 4 of my albums, calling them Taylor’s Version.

The passionate support you showed those albums and the success story you turned The Eras Tour into is why I was able to buy back my music. 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.”

She added: “All I’ve ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to 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.

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. I am endlessly thankful. My first tattoo might just be a huge shamrock in the middle of my forehead.”

Swift went on to inform her fans of the possibility of releasing re-recordings of Taylor Swift and Reputation.

Taylor Swift performing in November 2023. TAS2023/Getty Images

“I know, I know. What about Rep TV? 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. All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposely misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief,” she wrote.

“To be perfectly honest, it’s the one album in those first 6 that I thought couldn’t be improved upon by redoing it. Not the music, or the photos, or videos. So I kept putting it off. There will be a time (if you’re into the idea) for the unreleased vault tracks from that album to hatch.

I’ve already completely re-recorded my entire debut album, and I really love how it sounds now. Those 2 albums can still have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right, if that would be something you guys would be excited about. But if it happens, it won’t be from a place of sadness and longing for what I wish I could have. It will just be a celebration now.”

Taylor Swift performing in May 2024.Xavi Torrent/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management

Swift added: “I’m extremely hearted by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans. Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recordings in their record contract because of this fight, I’m reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen. Thank you for being curious about something that used to be thought of as too industry-centric for broad discussion. You’ll never know how much it means to me that you cared. Every single bit of it counted, and ended us up here.”

The Grammy winner signed her note saying she was “elated and amazed” after writing, “Thanks to you and your goodwill, teamwork, and encouragement, the best things that have ever been mine… finally actually are.”

Swift’s lengthy saga began in June 2019, when Scooter Braun — then best known as a manager to stars like Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande — purchased Big Machine Records from Scott Borchetta.

Scooter Braun in 2021; Taylor Swift in 2024.Gregory Pace/Shutterstock; Gotham/WireImage

Borchetta founded Big Machine in 2005, and Swift was the first star he signed — so when Braun’s company, Ithaca Holdings, acquired the label, he received control of all of the albums Swift had made before signing with Universal Music Group in 2018, from her 2006 self-titled debut to 2017’s Reputation.

At the time, Swift shared a lengthy Tumblr post expressing frustration with the situation, saying she’d pleaded with Borchetta for years “for a chance to own” her work, but had instead only been given “the opportunity to sign back up at Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in.”

At the time, she wrote in part: “I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years. … Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy… Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”

Taylor Swift performing in August 2025.Gareth Cattermole/TAS24/Getty Images

The situation took another turn in November 2020, when Braun, 43, sold the catalog to Shamrock Capital, a private equity company.

Swift shared details of the deal in a social media post shortly after, saying she’d been “actively trying” to regain ownership of her masters over that last year, and had tried to enter into negotiations with Braun, but was unsuccessful after turning down his team’s demands of an NDA that required her to only speak positively about the entrepreneur.

When she and her team received a letter from Shamrock alerting them that they’d bought 100 percent of her music, videos and album art from Braun, Swift wrote it was “the second time my music had been sold without my knowledge,” and noted that under the terms of the deal, Braun would continue to profit off her catalog “for many years.”

In the same statement, Swift announced she’d be re-recording her first six albums as a means of giving herself ownership of her masters. (When she signed with Universal, the deal gave her ownership of all future masters).

Her first re-recorded album, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), came out in April 2021, and she has since released new versions of Red, 1989 and Speak Now. The venture has paid off for the star, as all of the releases have gone to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and her journey has served as inspiration for other stars to fight for control of their masters.

Braun, for his part, told Variety in 2021 that he was unhappy with the way the situation played out.

“I regret and it makes me sad that Taylor had that reaction to the deal. … All of what happened has been very confusing and not based on anything factual. I don’t know what story she was told. I asked for her to sit down with me several times, but she refused,” he claimed. “I offered to sell her the catalog back and went under NDA, but her team refused. It all seems very unfortunate. Open communication is important and can lead to understanding. She and I only met briefly three or four times in the past, and all our interactions were really friendly and kind. I find her to be an incredibly talented artist and wish her nothing but the best.”