Taylor Swift finally owns all her music — but ‘Reputation (Taylor’s Version)’ is still on hold

Taylor Swift has reached a historic milestone in her career by finally acquiring complete ownership of her music catalog, including the masters of her first six albums. Although her music ownership saga has been one of the most publicized battles in the industry, she has successfully purchased back her master recordings from Shamrock Capital (which acquired them from Scooter Braun in 2020).

Although the details of the transaction haven’t surfaced, this move got attention and praise everywhere from Swift’s fans online. After winning the rights to her music catalog, Taylor Swift published a letter on her website to fans describing the obstacles she faced during the struggle.

"All of the music I’ve ever made… now belongs… to me. And all my music videos. All the concert films. The album art and photography. The unreleased songs. The memories. The magic. The madness. Every single era. My entire life’s work"

She then went on to express her gratitude to Shamrock Capital as well:

"All I’ve ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to one day purchase my music outright with no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy. I will be forever grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to ever offer this to me. 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"

Will Taylor Swift's Reputation (Taylor's Version) be delayed?

Taylor Swift has brought back the music rights to each of her first six albums: Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation. While Swift is welcoming this huge achievement, it’s also good to remember that she has been working on and releasing 'Taylor’s Versions' of all her previous albums over the past years.

Even with all the positive reactions to these re-records, one album has been surprisingly left out of her “Taylor’s Version” collection, with Reputation, Swift’s 2017 album, being the missing link. Fans have been expecting Taylor to release the album for a while now, and the artist addressed the topic in her recent post on her website and gave reasons for the delay:

"The Reputation album was so specific to that time in my life, and I kept hitting a stopping point when I tried to remake it. All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposefully misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief. To be perfectly honest, it's the one album in those first six that I thought couldn't be improved upon redoing it. Not the music, or photos or videos. So I kept putting it off.”

She continued:

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"There will be a time (if you're into the idea) for the unreleased Vault tracks from that album to hatch. I've already completely re-recorded my album, and I really love how it sounds now. Those two albums (Reputation and Taylor Swift) can still have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right. But if it happens, it won't be from a place of sadness and longing for what I wish I could have. It will just be a celebration now"

While Swift has hinted at potentially releasing unreleased tracks from the Reputation era, she seems in no rush to re-record the album itself, so fans might have to wait for a while. On the other hand, by successfully purchasing her master's music back from Shamrock Capital, Taylor Swift has secured not just artistic control for herself but a financial windfall that will continue paying dividends for decades.

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