The years-long battle for the rights to her music intensified after Scooter Braun‘s Ithaca Holdings LLC had purchased her former label, Big Machine Records, in June 2019. (He sold the label to Shamrock Capital, whom Taylor recovered the masters from, the following year.)
At the time, Taylor shared insight into quest to own her music ahead of her departure from her original label in late 2018.
“For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work,” Swift wrote on her Tumblr page. “Instead I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in. I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, [Big Machine founder] Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future.”
Throughout the fight, Taylor began taking autonomy of her work by re-recording the music she didn’t own, releasing Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), Red (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) between 2022 and 2024.
“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,” Taylor wrote in her heartfelt message to fans. “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.”