Taylor Swift buys back the rights to her first six albums

Taylor Swift announced on Friday, May 30, that she has achieved her "greatest dream" by acquiring the rights to her first six albums, ending a long battle over ownership of her work.

"All the music I've ever made is mine now. All my music videos. All my concert footage. Album art and photos. Unreleased songs. Memory, magic, madness. Every era. My entire life's work," the singer writes on her website.

The pop princess was at odds with music industry mogul Scooter Braun, who acquired the Big Machine label in 2019 for $300 million, according to press reports, thus gaining control of the majority of Taylor Swift's recordings, who felt she had been "robbed" of her work.

The owner of the master recordings—the original recordings used to make vinyl, CDs, and other digital copies—decides how the songs are reproduced or sold. These coveted recordings are one of the main sources of income for the artists who own the rights to them.

Scooter Braun then sold the rights to Taylor Swift's first six albums to the investment firm Shamrock. In an attempt to regain control of her work, the American singer even re-recorded four of her early albums, adding "Taylor's Version" to these tracks.

"All I ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to one day be able to buy back the rights to my music, without constraints, without partnerships, with complete autonomy," added the singer, thanking Shamrock Capital for giving her the opportunity to buy back the rights to her early albums, including Fearless and 1989. The amount of the transaction was not specified.

Taylor Swift wrote or co-wrote most of her own repertoire, allowing her to re-record songs without owning the recordings. As a teenager, she signed with Big Machine in 2005 before leaving the label thirteen years later.