Taylor Swift Just Bought Back Her Masters, Let's Talk About It.

Photo taken from Taylor Swift's Official Instragram: taylorswift

Announced on May 30th 2025 through her Instagram post, Taylor Swift had announced  to all her fans that she bought back her Masters for all of her “stolen” music. This was huge for her and her fans, but many do not understand what it means for her legally and her business, which is her music. That’s what I am here to explain!

To begin, masters are the original recording of a song/album. This is the version which all copies are made from. Having and owning your masters means you have the original, high-quality copy of a song/album that you produced. As well, an artist has significant control over how their music is used, produced, and distributed when you own your masters because you have ownership of the copy itself. 

In 2019, Taylor Swift lost her masters. Swift’s record label, Big Machine Records, sold the masters to Ithaca Holdings, resulting in a transfer of ownership of the rights to the original copies. Now, after years of effort and developing her first six albums, the rights to her songs and albums belonged to someone other than her. This was difficult for her, as described through posts online, and difficult to process. From what I understand, Swift was not given the option to buy her own masters when Big Machine Records was selling them. They just sold them to someone else.

That’s when the new era of “Taylor’s Version” came to be. In an act to “re-own” her past albums, Swift rerecorded all of her old albums. She went back into her studio and re-sang all her old songs and even added some new songs that never got released. For example, recently, Taylor Swift released “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” in October 0f 2023. The album featured all the original songs that were on the original album and some from the extended versions, but it also included six songs that were never released. The main difference is that she recorded them how she would have today, with a “new” voice and her studio today. Fans responded positively to all rerecordings, actively choosing not to listen to the older versions of the songs, that way Swift can receive the revenue they believe she deserves. This was an act of reclaiming what was taken. 

However, after 6 years, her dreams finally came true. In May of this year, Swift announced that she has bought all her masters back. This means that all her albums, music videos, concert films, art, photography, and anything unreleased she created all belong to her. Swift stated in a letter to her fans that the revenue generated from her recent tour “The Eras Tour” allowed her to buy the masters from Shamrock Capital, who previously bought it from Ithaca Holdings. 

This was significant to Swift. Not just to her emotionally, but also legally and to her “business”. 

From a legal standpoint, Taylor Swift has more freedom to choose what she wants to do with her music. Owning her songs allows Swift to directly choose what she wants to do with them, rather than discussing the terms with her record label or whomever owns the masters as well. This means the usage of her songs in movies, shows, or any other form of media is all in Swift’s control. She can choose to grant, deny, or negotiate usage and licenses to allow her to maximize her revenue and creativity. 

As a business, Taylor Swift will generate more profit from her music when she owns her music. Originally, Swift was able to gain revenue from her four re-recordings. By competing her old recordings with the new recordings, the more streams that her new recordings receive means more profit that she can earn from the songs. Additionally, the more songs Swift has out on a streaming service, the more she can dominate charts, effectively outperforming other artists. By owning all of her music, she will receive the royalties for all her songs, no matter if they are original or “Taylor’s Version”. So, by Swift solely owning the royalties, she will be able to gain all future revenue from streams and make a profitable music empire. 

For Taylor Swift, owning all her music will benefit her extremely. Even if it’s just the ability to own her own work she wants, Swift having her masters over her whole music catalog will allow her to avoid much legal trouble and gain all future revenue from her songs. Legally, she’s able to loan her music to who she chooses and for what reason she wants. As a music business, Swift can receive profit from new versions of her music (rerecordings) and her old music that fans adore. 

Masters are important to any artist when creating music. After the success of the Eras Tour, I’m glad that Taylor Swift is able to own all her music again.

***I do not own the rights for the photo used! All rights are retained to the rightful owner!