It’s looking like Taylor Swift might finally win the battle of her masters that sparked one of the music industry’s biggest dramas.
Sources say she now has the chance to buy back the original master recordings of her first six albums, and in a truly wild twist, the person backing the deal is none other than Scooter Braun.
If you remember, Braun bought the rights to Taylor’s first six studio albums in 2019 in a $300 million deal that led to a full-blown war. Swift blasted the move, calling Braun a bully and saying the sale was done without her knowledge or consent. She claimed she was never given the chance to buy her own work and called Braun the “definition of toxic male privilege in our industry.” It led her to re-record each of those albums under her own ownership, now known as Taylor’s Versions.
But now the original masters, Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation, might land back in her hands. The company that bought the masters from Braun, investment firm Shamrock Capital, is reportedly open to selling them to her. And the person who’s apparently encouraging the sale? Scooter Braun himself.
“Interestingly enough, one of the individuals who is encouraging this deal to take place is Scooter, who was at the center of the deal the first time around alongside Big Machine,” a source said, referring to Taylor’s original label.
The price tag? It could land anywhere between $600 million and $1 billion. But experts say it would absolutely be worth it. Music consultant Clayton Durant says owning both the old and new versions of her albums would give Swift complete control of her catalog and maximize her publishing royalties. She’d be able to license the songs however she wants, movies, ads, even political campaigns, without needing approval from anyone else.
“She’s making money off the publishing still from the original songs,” Durant explained, “but not as much as from the Taylor’s Versions, which she owns.” He also pointed out that any time she releases a re-recorded version, the original sees a spike in consumption too. So having both would only multiply her profits.
But this situation gets even more layered. When Swift originally blasted Braun and Big Machine for not giving her a fair shot at owning her music, some industry insiders claimed otherwise. One source told The Blast that the sale was being discussed in music circles for almost a year. And Swift’s dad, Scott Swift, who had a stake in Big Machine, reportedly made $16 million off the sale.
Emails from the time, shared by TMZ, show he contributed to the “data room” used by potential buyers, which suggests he was involved in the process. The Max docuseries Bad Blood even says Swift was offered the chance to buy her masters by Big Machine boss Scott Borchetta in 2019, and again by Braun when he sold them to Shamrock in 2020. The documentary also questions whether the NDA Swift mentioned in her Tumblr post actually existed.
Regardless, the public only saw one side in 2019, Swift’s passionate and emotional open letter on Tumblr. “Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy,” she wrote. “Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”
Swift was just 15 when she signed with Big Machine in 2005, agreeing to make six albums under their label. That deal turned her into one of the biggest stars in the world but also led to this messy battle over ownership. When the sale happened, Swift immediately went into action, re-recording all six albums and reclaiming her narrative, one Taylor’s Version at a time.
And just one day before this latest twist made headlines, fans got their first taste of Reputation (Taylor’s Version) when “Look What You Made Me Do” played during a key scene in The Handmaid’s Tale.
So here we are, Taylor Swift could soon own every version of the music that made her famous. The original masters that caused “Bad Blood” might be coming back to her, with help from the same man she once accused of stealing them. As Durant said, maybe it’s not just about the money anymore. Swift is already a billionaire. This may be about setting the record straight, literally and symbolically.
It’s a full-circle moment that only Taylor Swift could turn into a billion-dollar statement on power, ownership, and legacy.
