But let’s start at the beginning: In 2021, Taylor was a long-established veteran of the industry. Armed with everything she had learned over the years — as both an artist and a brand — she was navigating an ever-evolving musical landscape with remarkable precision. She was also one of the few artists with the power and profile to create real change in the music world. And as ever, when she moved, the industry listened. Her decision to reclaim her master recordings and to speak so openly and strategically about the injustice behind their sale became a turning point not just in her own career, but in the wider conversation around artist rights. Sure, she was a multi-millionaire (and by fall 2023, officially a billionaire) but her fight wasn’t just for herself. It was for every aspiring artist who might one day face the same impossible choice between exposure and ownership. “Hopefully […] kids with musical dreams will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation,” she tweeted. “You deserve to own the art you make.”
It all began in June 2019, when the
master recordings of Taylor’s first six studio albums were sold to music executive Scooter Braun and his company, Ithaca Holdings. The move sent shockwaves through Taylor and the music world—and ignited one of the most public artist-label battles in recent memory.
Taylor had signed with
Big Machine Records in 2005, when she was just 15 years old; a teenage singer-songwriter with a guitar, big dreams, and long blond curls. Over the next 13 years, she skyrocketed to acclaim and stardom, first as a country darling and then as a global pop powerhouse, delivering chart-topping singles like “
I Knew You Were Trouble.” and selling out stadiums around the world. Her contract with Big Machine expired in 2018, and Taylor made the pivotal decision to sign with
Republic Records, a division of
Universal Music Group—but this time, with a crucial difference: she would now own the masters to all her future work. At the time, she issued a gracious statement, thanking Big Machine founder Scott Borchetta “for guiding me through over a decade of work that I will always be so proud of,” while celebrating her newfound independence: “It’s also incredibly exciting to know that I’ll own all of my master recordings that I make from now on.”
In the music industry, changing labels and renegotiating contracts are expected steps for a successful artist. But what seemed like a standard transition quickly became front-page news when Big Machine was sold to Braun’s private equity-backed Ithaca Holdings—and with it, Taylor’s catalog, valued then at a reported $140 million— effectively handing him ownership of the original recordings of every song Taylor had made between 2006 and 2017. Suddenly, whenever someone wanted to license one of those songs, Scooter Braun would be the one to profit. He was obviously very pleased with himself, publicly celebrating on Instagram that he had just “bought Taylor Swift.”
From a business standpoint, the acquisition made sense: Taylor’s early catalog was massively profitable. But on a personal level, it was explosive. Taylor publicly denounced the deal, saying she had not been given the opportunity to purchase her masters herself and accusing Braun, whom she described as a manipulative industry player, of years of bullying. In an August 2019 interview with
CBS This Morning, she said:
In an explosive Tumblr post, Taylor described Braun’s acquisition as her “worst-case scenario,” accusing him of “incessant, manipulative bullying” and Big Machine founder Scott Borchetta of a deep betrayal of trust. “Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy,” she wrote, calling out the injustice of the deal in no uncertain terms. “Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.” Taylor felt powerless. In an interview with Time in 2023, she recalled, “I was so knocked on my ass by the sale of my music, and to whom it was sold. I was like, ‘Oh, they got me beat now. This is it. I don’t know what to do.’”
It didn’t take long for Taylor to begin crafting her response. She outlined bold plans to re-record her first six studio albums in a bid to wrest back control of her narrative and her legacy. As she told Time in 2023, “I’d run into Kelly Clarkson and she would go, ‘Just redo it.’ My dad kept saying it to me too. I’d look at them and go, ‘How can I possibly do that?’ Nobody wants to redo their homework if, on the way to school, the wind blows your book report away.”
And yet, unlike many artists in her position, Taylor had one key advantage: she wrote her own songs. That meant she retained the copyright to the compositions themselves—which gave her the legal right to re-record them. Eventually, she made the decision that would become one of the most defining of her career: As soon as her re-recording restriction expired in November 2020, she would begin. It was a creative act of defiance, not just a business move. To Taylor, re-recording wasn’t just about ownership; it was about dignity. “It’s all in how you deal with loss,” she later explained. “I respond to extreme pain with defiance.” She decided to make the best out of the situation, announcing on Good Morning America in August 2019:
The saga escalated in November 2019, when Taylor revealed that Big Machine and Scooter Braun were allegedly blocking her from performing her early hits at the televised American Music Awards—where she was being honored with the prestigious “Artist of the Decade” award. According to Taylor, they claimed that performing the songs would count as an illegal “re-recording” before she was contractually allowed to do so. The story sparked massive public backlash and a #IStandWithTaylor movement among fans and fellow artists alike. In the end, an agreement was reached, and during her iconic AMAs performance, Taylor made a subtle but powerful statement: she wore a plain white shirt emblazoned with the names of the six albums she had released under Big Machine.
Then, in November 2020, yet another twist emerged. Scooter Braun sold Taylor’s masters to Los Angeles-based investment firm Shamrock Capital in a deal reportedly worth $300 million. At first, Taylor admitted she had been “hopeful and open to the possibility of a partnership” with Shamrock—until she discovered that under the terms of the deal, Braun would continue to profit from her catalog for years to come. With that, she declined to work with them, reaffirming her commitment to reclaim her music on her own terms.
The care and detail Taylor poured into Fearless (Taylor’s Version) transformed it from a simple remake into a 26-track celebration of a formative era—and fans embraced it wholeheartedly. To the surprise of many in the industry, the record made history: it became the first re-recorded version of a previous No. 1 album to return to the top of the Billboard 200, debuting with 291,000 equivalent album units, the biggest opening week of 2021 at that point, according to MRC Data.
Taylor, for her part, was stunned by the response. She admitted that she wasn’t sure how the re-recordings would be received, since the project was rooted in such personal stakes for her. In fact, she didn’t treat the release with the same marketing muscle as a traditional studio album. For example, there was no new photoshoot; instead, the visuals were mostly composed of outtakes from the evermore sessions, captured around the same time she began re-recording. And yet, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) didn’t need a big rollout. It had something far more powerful: the loyalty of fans who believed in what it stood for.
Fearless (Taylor’s Version) wasn’t the only way Taylor’s towering legacy loomed large over the first half of 2021. After the album’s April release, she proved not just influential but actively present in shaping the year’s pop landscape — particularly through her impact on rising star Olivia Rodrigo. The singer-songwriter, then still a teenager, had been open about her admiration for Taylor since the release of her breakout hit “drivers license” in January. She called Taylor a guiding force both sonically and spiritually, and Taylor responded with an enthusiastic Instagram shoutout as the single shot to No. 1.
When Olivia’s debut album
SOUR dropped in May, the connection became even more tangible. The piano ballad “
1 step forward, 3 steps back” interpolated the piano motif from Taylor’s “
New Year’s Day,” resulting in Taylor and Jack Antonoff being credited as co-writers. Just weeks later, Taylor, Antonoff and St. Vincent (Annie Clark) were also added as co-writers to Olivia’s hit “
deja vu” due to its melodic similarities to “
Cruel Summer.” Olivia may have been pop’s rookie of the year, but Taylor’s influence, both literal and figurative, was woven into every corner of her success. Meanwhile, Taylor was earning major accolades of her own. In May, she became the first woman to receive the prestigious “Global Icon Award” at the
BRIT Awards, and not long after, she was honored with the “Songwriter Icon Award” at the 2021
NMPA Awards—a fitting tribute to her status as one of the most influential lyricists of her generation.
She didn’t slow down creatively either. That summer, Taylor lent her voice to two tracks on
How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?, the second album by Big Red Machine, a collaboration between her
folklore/
evermore co-writer Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. The songs “
Renegade” and “
Birch” felt like graceful extensions of that dreamy, woodsy era. And just when fans least expected it, Taylor dropped the re-recorded version of her
1989 hit “
Wildest Dreams.” Not as part of a formal album rollout, but simply to join in on the TikTok trend that had brought the song back into the zeitgeist. It was a lighthearted move that reminded everyone: even in a year of career-defining statements, Taylor still knew how to have fun with her music.
Following the overwhelming success of Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Taylor realized that her fears about the re-recordings being “an embarrassing project” were unfounded. Her fans didn’t just support the endeavor, they embraced it wholeheartedly. Buoyed by that enthusiasm, she decided to invest even more time, resources, and creative energy into the releases to come.
In the end, RED (Taylor’s Version) drove as much conversation as any of Taylor’s recent all-new studio albums. It scored a blockbuster debut, with 605,000 first-week equivalent album units moved in the US, more than double the amount of Fearless (Taylor’s Version). Additionally, the album also launched 26 of its tracks onto the Billboard Hot 100. A record among female artists at the time, which she would go on to break multiple times.
In December 2021, Billboard named Taylor the “Greatest Pop Star of 2021,” marking the second time she earned the title following her first win in 2015. No other artist matched her ability to channel fan devotion with such creativity, precision, and emotional resonance that year. Across albums and platforms, Taylor defied conventional industry norms—reclaiming ownership of her work while still dominating within the very system she was challenging.
Remarkably, she achieved all of this without releasing a traditional new studio album. In a historic feat, she became the first female artist in the 65-year history of the Billboard 200 to send three separate projects to No. 1 within a single calendar year. And in November, a major milestone for her re-recordings project arrived: iHeartRadio announced it would exclusively play Taylor’s Versions of her earlier hits as each album rolled out. Streaming services had already elevated the re-recordings with prime placement on front pages and major playlists. But now, radio had joined the movement too.
The numbers spoke volumes, but the bigger story was cultural: the world had embraced Taylor’s Versions as the new definitive editions, replacing the beloved originals in the public consciousness. Taylor was actively reshaping the music industry in her image. These were the kinds of bold, high-stakes moves that elevate an artist from icon to legend. And though they were difficult to pull off, anyone who had been paying attention knew she’d stick every landing. Wind in her hair, she was there—making it look effortless.
Nashville commemorated the occasion by lighting its famous John Sigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge purple that night.
Taylor pulled out all the stops for the launch weekend of
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), turning her “Eras Tour” stop in Kansas City (where she would be spending a lot more time, come fall) into an unforgettable celebration. As a surprise to fans, she added a heartfelt performance of “
Long Live” to the setlist—a song many had hoped would make its return. But the real spectacle came with the live premiere of a brand-new music video for the vault track “
I Can See You.” The cinematic clip starred Joey King and Presley Cash, both of whom appeared in Taylor’s 2011 “
Mean” video, as well as her ex-boyfriend Taylor Lautner, who famously inspired the
Speak Now classic “
Back to December.” After the video premiere, Taylor shocked the crowd by bringing King, Cash, and Lautner on stage. In a moment that quickly went viral, Lautner delighted fans by performing a cartwheel and backflip—a cheeky nod to his role alongside Taylor in the 2010 rom-com
Valentine’s Day.
Commercially,
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) was another juggernaut. It debuted at No. 1 on the
Billboard 200, with 716,000 equivalent album units sold in the US and over 1 million globally in its first week. It shattered the record for the biggest debut of any re-recorded album, surpassing the previous high set by
RED (Taylor’s Version) in 2021. The album also helped Taylor achieve another milestone: she became the first living artist in nearly six decades to have four albums simultaneously in the Top 10 of the
Billboard 200—
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),
Midnights,
Lover, and
folklore.
She told Time in December 20203, “It feels like the breakthrough moment of my career, happening at 33. And for the first time in my life, I was mentally tough enough to take what comes with that.”
Amid her record-breaking “Eras Tour,” Taylor once again made headlines offstage as well, when she began dating NFL star Travis Kelce—reportedly around August 2023. The couple confirmed their budding romance a month later, when Taylor made a surprise appearance at a Kansas City Chiefs home game at Arrowhead Stadium to cheer on the tight end. It was a full-circle moment that came months after Travis had first publicly expressed interest in her, following his attendance at one of her concerts during the release weekend of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).
On an episode of his New Heights podcast (which he co-hosts with his brother, former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce), Travis shared the story of his failed first attempt at connecting with Taylor. “If you’re up on Taylor Swift concerts, there are friendship bracelets. I received a bunch while I was there, but I wanted to give Taylor one with my number on it.” However, his plan hit a snag: unlike past tours, Taylor wasn’t doing meet-and-greets during “The Eras Tour” due to the physical demands of her three-hour-plus shows. “I was disappointed that she doesn’t talk before or after her shows because she has to save her voice for the 44 songs she sings. She doesn’t meet anybody—or at least she didn’t want to meet me, so I took it personal,” he joked.
Not long after though, sources told Entertainment Tonight that Taylor and Travis were in the early “talking” stage of their relationship and keeping things casual given their demanding schedules. But once Taylor appeared in the VIP suite at Arrowhead Stadium in late September—seated next to Travis’s mother, Donna—it was clear things were becoming more serious. The moment captured the public’s imagination, and within days, the pair were being dubbed “America’s Royal Couple.” Taylor told Time in December 2023:
Asked how he felt about the whirlwind of attention surrounding his relationship with the world’s biggest pop star, Travis offered a thoughtful response in an interview from the Chiefs’ practice facility: “As all the attention comes, it feels like, you know, I was on top of the world after the Super Bowl and right now even more on top of the world. So it’s fun. We’re learning with the paparazzi just taking photos from all over the place, but at the same time, you know, it comes with it. It comes with it. You got a lot of people that care about Taylor, and for good reason.”
Taylor’s accomplishments as an artist—culturally, critically, and commercially—are so legion that to recount them seems almost beside the point. As a pop star, she sits in rarefied company, alongside Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and Madonna; as a songwriter, she has been compared to Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and Joni Mitchell. As a businesswoman, she has built an empire worth over $1 billion. And as a celebrity—who by dint of being a woman is scrutinized for everything from whom she dates to what she wears—she has long commanded constant attention and knows how to use it. But it was still a huge surprise when TIME named Taylor its “Person of the Year” in December 2023. She became the first person in the arts to earn the prestigious honor.
That year, something shifted. To discuss Taylor’s movements felt like discussing politics or the weather—a language spoken so widely it needed no context. She became the main character of the world. For her personally, it was a peak:
At the time, analysts talked about the “Taylor effect,” as politicians from Thailand, Hungary, and Chile implored her to play their countries for “The Eras Tour.” Cities, stadiums, and streets were renamed for her. Every time she came to a new place, a mini economic boom took place as hotels and restaurants saw a surge of visitors. There were at least 10 college classes devoted to her, including one at Harvard. Friendship bracelets traded by her fans at concerts became a hot accessory, with one line in a song causing as much as a 500% increase in sales at craft stores. When Taylor started dating Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chief and two-time Super Bowl champion, his games saw a massive increase in viewership. (Yes, she somehow made one of America’s most popular things—football—even more popular.) She was the last monoculture left in a stratified world.
It’s hard to see history when you’re in the middle of it, harder still to distinguish Taylor’s impact on the culture from her celebrity, which emits so much light it can be blinding. But something unusual was happening with Taylor, without a contemporary precedent. She deployed the most efficient medium of the day—the pop song—to tell her story. Yet over time, she had harnessed the power of the media, both traditional and new, to create something wholly unique—a narrative world, in which her music was just one piece in an interactive, shape-shifting story. Taylor was that story’s architect and hero, protagonist and narrator.
This was the year she perfected her craft—not just with her music, but in her position as the master storyteller of the modern era. The world, in turn, watched, clicked, cried, danced, sang along, swooned, caravanned to stadiums and movie theaters, let her work soundtrack their lives.
After “The Eras Tour” came to a triumphant close in December 2024, Taylor took a well-deserved and much-needed step back from the public eye. To everyone’s surprise, she returned on May 30, 2025, after months of silence. Posting a lengthy letter to her website, she shared that she now officially owns the master recordings of all her music, including her first six studio albums. In a heartfelt statement, she confirmed that she had purchased the albums — along with their associated visuals and materials — from Shamrock Capital, bringing full-circle closure to the battle that began in 2019 when her life’s work was sold without her knowledge or consent. In her letter, she wrote:
The deal, reportedly worth 360 million, grants Taylor ownership of everything from Taylor Swift (2006) through reputation (2017), including music videos, concert footage, artwork, and even typography — all of which had been inaccessible to her since leaving Big Machine Records in 2018. Taylor called the agreement “exceptionally fair and reasonable,” a quietly powerful statement considering the years of legal, emotional, and artistic turbulence that led to this moment.
Since 2019, Taylor had turned heartbreak and frustration into one of the most groundbreaking campaigns in music history. A re-recording journey that had not only reclaimed her legacy but reshaped the conversation around artist rights. With every Taylor’s Version release, she rewrote the rules of the industry, inspiring artists everywhere to fight for ownership of their work. And now, with her full discography finally under her control, Taylor stands exactly where she has always belonged — at the helm of her own story.
![Fearless (Taylor's Version) [Republic Records, 2021]](https://taylorswiftswitzerland.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Et8qlsWXMAQ80VC-1024x1024.jpg)
![Fearless (Taylor's Version) [Republic Records, 2021]](https://taylorswiftswitzerland.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Et8qlsWXMAQ80VC-150x150.jpg)
![Taylor Swift for RED (Taylor's Version) [Beth Garrabrant, 2021]](https://taylorswiftswitzerland.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/red-taylors-version-taylor-swift-2021-2-1024x1024.jpg)
![Taylor Swift for RED (Taylor's Version) [Beth Garrabrant, 2021]](https://taylorswiftswitzerland.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/taylor-swift-red-taylors-version-4-e1695512382166-1024x1024.png)
![RED (Taylor's Version) [Republic Records, 2021]](https://taylorswiftswitzerland.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/8k-RED-Taylors-Version-150x150.jpg)
![Speak Now (Taylor's Version) [Republic Records, 2023]](https://taylorswiftswitzerland.ch/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/speak-now-taylors-version-2023-cover-150x150.jpg)
![1989 (Taylor's Version): Crystal Skies Blue Standard Edition [Republic Records, 2023]](https://taylorswiftswitzerland.ch/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/1989-taylors-version-taylor-swift-2023-150x150.jpg)
![RED (Taylor's Version) [Republic Records, 2021]](https://taylorswiftswitzerland.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/8k-RED-Taylors-Version-1024x1024.jpg)
![Speak Now (Taylor's Version) [Republic Records, 2023]](https://taylorswiftswitzerland.ch/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/speak-now-taylors-version-2023-cover-1024x1024.jpg)
![1989 (Taylor's Version): Crystal Skies Blue Standard Edition [Republic Records, 2023]](https://taylorswiftswitzerland.ch/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/1989-taylors-version-taylor-swift-2023-1024x1024.jpg)