Taylor Swift Reveals Shamrock Capital Gave Her Back Control Of Her Music 'With No Strings Attached'
After several years of struggle, the "You Belong With Me" singer finally revealed that she has taken back ownership of her music catalog "with no strings attached."
On Friday, May 30, the 'Love Story' singer posted a lengthy letter on her website. She addressed her fans, known as Swifties, with a simple, 'Hi,' before she began her letter by describing her thoughts as a 'slideshow.'
'I'm trying to gather my thoughts into something coherent, but right now my mind is just a slideshow,' she wrote. 'A flashback sequence of all the times I daydreamed about, wished for, and pined away for a chance to get to tell you this news. All the times I was thiiiiiiiiiiiiis close, reaching out for it, only for it to fall through,' she continued.
'I almost stopped thinking it would ever happen, after 20 years of having the carrot dangled and then yanked away,' the 'Anti-Hero' singer confessed. 'But that's all in the past now. I've been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found out that this is really happening. I really get to say these words.'
'All of the music I've ever made… now belongs… to me,' she revealed. '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.'
'To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it,' she confessed. 'To my fans, you know how important this has been to me – so much so that I meticulously re-recorded and released 4 of my albums, calling them Taylor's Version.'
'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,' she revealed. '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.'
'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,' she continued. '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,' she revealed. 'This was a business deal to them, but I really felt like they saw it for what it was to me: my memory 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.'
She also gave fans a hint about the status of "Reputation (Taylor's Version)," which may disappoint many Swifties.
'I know, I know. What about Rep TV? Full transparency: I haven't even re-recorded a quarter of it. 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,' she wrote. 'All that defiance, that longing, to be understood while feeling purposely misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief.'
'To be perfectly honest, it's the one album in those first 6 that I thought couldn't be improved upon by redoing it,' she confessed. 'Not the music, or photos, or videos. So I kept putting it off. There will be a time (if you're into the idea) for the unreleased Vault tracks from that album to watch.'
'I've already completely re-recorded my entire debut album, and I really love how it sounds now,' she continued. 'Those 2 albums can still have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right, if that would be something you guys would be excited about.'
'But if it happens, it won't be from a place of sadness and longing for what I wish I could have,' she added. 'It will just be a celebration now.'
'I'm extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans,' she went on to write. 'Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recordings in their record contract because of this fight, I'm reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen.'
'Thank you for being curious about something that used to be thought of as too industry-centric for broad discussion. You'll never know how much it means to me that you cared. Every single bit of it counted and ended us up here,' she wrote.
'Thanks to you and your goodwill, teamwork, and encouragement, the best things that have ever been mine… finally actually are,' she concluded, wrapping up her letter with 'Elated and amazed, Taylor.'
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