Taylor Swift spent years rebuilding her music empire after losing her first 6 albums; in 2025, she finally bought back the original masters

Fourteen-time Grammy-winning singer Taylor Swift’s long-running dispute over ownership of the master recordings of her early albums reached a major turning point in 2025.

As reported by Reuters, on May 30 last year, singer of Cruel Summer said that she had bought the master recordings of her first six albums from Shamrock Capital, which was the owner of the recordings at that moment. The financial details of the purchase have not been revealed.

Which Taylor Swift albums were involved

The six albums are Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation.


She had recorded her first six albums with Big Machine Label Group. In 2019, Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine, including the master recordings of Swift’s first six albums. Blank Space singer subsequently said she had not been given the opportunity to purchase those masters when the acquisition took place.

The original masters were later sold to Shamrock Capital in 2020. Swift ultimately purchased them from Shamrock in 2025.

However, the Anti-Hero singer had not previously owned those original master recordings. In astatement, she described them as work she had “never owned until now,” as quoted in a letter from Taylorswift.com.

Why did Taylor Swift start re-recording her albums

After the 2019 change in ownership of her original masters, the Shake It Off singer began re-recording her earlier albums.

The new recordings were released under the “Taylor’s Version” name. She released Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) in 2021, followed by Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in 2023.

By May 2025, four of her first six albums had been re-recorded and released as Taylor’s Version. Swift said she had “meticulously re-recorded and released 4” of the albums.

What happened to Taylor Swift and Reputation

The 36-year-old singer had not released Taylor’s Version editions of her self-titled debut album or Reputation by the time she announced the purchase of the original masters.

In her statement, Swift said she had completely re-recorded Taylor Swift, her 2006 debut album. She also said she had re-recorded less than a quarter of Reputation.

She said she would release those recordings “when the time is right” and if fans wanted them.

How did the original masters change hands

The ownership history of the recordings began with Big Machine Label Group, which released Swift’s first six albums.

In 2019, Scooter Braun acquired Big Machine Label Group, which owned the master recordings of Swift’s first six albums. The recordings were later sold to Shamrock Capital, which became their owner before Swift purchased them in 2025

Swift then purchased the original master recordings from Shamrock in May 2025.

This is why the most precise description of the 2025 transaction is that Swift purchased the masters from Shamrock. Although the deal is widely described as Swift “buying back” or “regaining” her masters, she had not previously owned those original recordings.

Swift also acquired other material

The Lover singer said her 2025 purchase included more than the original master recordings.

In her announcement, she said she now owned her music videos, concert films, album art and photography, unreleased songs and other material associated with her work.

She described the development as her “greatest dream come true” and praised executives at Shamrock for giving her the opportunity to purchase her work, as per the Reuters report.

The May 2025 transaction gave Swift ownership of the original master recordings of her first six albums. By that point, four of those albums had also been re-recorded and released as Taylor’s Version.

The two remaining albums, Taylor Swift and Reputation, had not been released as Taylor’s Version, although Swift said she had completely re-recorded the former and recorded less than a quarter of the latter.