Taylor Swift's music by the numbers: who paid what for her billion-dollar empire
Taylor Swift is now in full control of her music catalog after a very long and public fight.
Now, we’re pretty sure she will ‘Remember this moment in the back of her mind” for a very, very long time.
But at what cost did Swift wrestle back control of her music library?
According to Variety, Swift paid an “undisclosed nine-figure sum” to investment firm Shamrock Capital to take complete ownership of her first six albums, “Taylor Swift” (2006), “Fearless” (2008), “Speak Now” (2010), “Red” (2012), “1989” (2014)” and “Reputation” (2017).
The financial back and forth began back in 2019 when her previous record label, Big Machine, sold her master recordings to Scooter Braun and his company, Ithaca Holdings.
Braun paid an estimated $300 million, according to Variety, and the actual catalog was worth $140 million.
At that time, Swift said in a statement that the deal “stripped me of my life’s work” and later announced her plans to re-record her own versions of the albums, which would give her full control.
In 2020, Braun sold the catalog to Shamrock Capital for a speculated $450 million Variety reported at the time.
Swift still balked at the deal, which she stated on social media would have given her a chance to be a partner of sorts with the company, but Braun would still be able to profit from her work, and she would have had to sign an NDA barring her from speaking about Braun.
The “Shake It Off Singer” released her re-recorded “Fearless” album in 2021, which sold 521,000 copies that year.
That same year, she released “Red (Taylor’s Version),” racking up 621,00 in sales.
In 2023, she re-released “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” selling 716,000, followed a few months later by “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” selling 2.8 million that year, making it the most successful of all her re-records.
Those four albums added to her financial empire, along with the record-breaking Eras Tour.
Swift’s two-year epic “Eras” tour became the highest-grossing tour of all time, earning $2 billion in ticket sales alone, not to mention the success of her concert film, which earned an additional $261 million at the box office.
The albums, tours, merchandise, and more all added up to Swift officially becoming a billionaire in 2023, per Forbes. The outlet reported Swift is worth an estimated $1.6 billion.
To buy back her masters, Variety reports that Swift paid closer to $300 million in a “good-faith deal” than some rumored costs of between $600 million to $1 billion.
In her letter announcing her purchase, Swift praised Shamrock Capital.
"All I've ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to 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. The way they've handled every interaction we've had has been honest, fair, and respectful. This was a business deal to them, but I really felt like they saw it for what it was to me: My memories and my sweat and my handwriting and my decades of dreams. I am endlessly thankful. My first tattoo might just be a huge shamrock in the middle of my forehead."
