THE FREQUENCY

“How Swift Reclaimed Her Masters”

Written by: Alana Stouder 

To get the full story, we have to go back to 2018. At this time, Swift had already released six of her now eleven-album catalog: Taylor Swift (Debut), Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation. It was also then that Swift’s deal with Big Machine Records expired and she signed a new label deal with Republic Records. The masters – otherwise known as the finished recordings – were owned by her old record label, Big Machine Records, and its founder, Scott Borchetta. Swift had trusted Borchetta, as he had been with her for the majority of her career and because he knew that owning her masters had been a lifelong dream of hers. 

These masters were soon to be owned by Scooter Braun, after he bought the label for $330 million. With this purchase he owned all of Swift’s masters, music videos, and anything she created that was copyrighted by Big Machine Records. This led to a lengthy dispute that took quite some time to settle. These disagreements led to her being unable to perform her music or even use it in other projects. A frustrated Swift went on to announce the re-recording of her masters, which would be owned by herself and used as she pleased. In 2020, Braun made a deal and sold the albums to a firm called Shamrock for $405 million. The only catch was he got to keep profiting from the recordings. 

Still with a strong distaste, Swift went on to record her masters with the original songs and then some added vault tracks. She ended up releasing Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Red (Taylor’s Version), Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), and 1989 (Taylor’s Version).  “The Eras Tour”, which looked back through her career, became somewhat of a way to celebrate these rerecordings. It would also go on to become the highest-grossing tour of all time. Fans would guess and theorize which album would come next and when she would announce it. Social media went crazy with these speculations. However; fans were left in shock after Swift’s post to Instagram on May 30th. 

This post announced that Swift  had reclaimed her original recordings and bought them all from Shamrock. After a seven year battle, Swift owned what was hers and artists everywhere learned a valuable lesson. Due to the situation that Swift endured, artists learned the importance of owning their masters or they realized they could rerecord their works if needed. Swift is a trailblazer for many reasons and this is just one to add to the list.