Taylor Swift celebrates masters win with Selena Gomez
After 20 years of having the carrot dangled and then yanked away, Taylor Swift finally owns the rights to her music.
Selena Gomez is "so proud" that her bestie, Taylor Swift, bought the master recordings of her first six albums.
Swift shocked her fans on Friday, May 30, when she revealed that after years of struggling to purchase her masters, the albums finally belong to her.
"I've been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found that this is really happening. I really get to say those words. All of the music I’ve ever made … now belongs… to me," she wrote on her website.
The 'Look What You Made Me Do' hitmaker started re-recording her first six albums in 2020 after a bitter dispute with record executive and businessman Scooter Braun.
"For years, I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work. Instead, I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in. I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future," she wrote in a 2019 Tumblr post.
Swift left Big Machine Records in 2018. Braun bought the label, gaining control of her first six albums:
- 'Taylor Swift' (2006)
- 'Fearless' (2008)
- 'Speak Now' (2010)
- 'Red' (2012)
- '1989' (2014)
- 'Reputation' (2017)
Swift revealed in a 2020 statement that Braun would only consider selling her the rights if she signed an NDA preventing her from talking about him negatively.
He later sold the master recordings to Shamrock Capital, which has now sold them back to Swift.
"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," she wrote.
Swift joked that her first tattoo would be a "huge shamrock" in the middle of her forehead.
"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."
Her best friend, Gomez, was one of the first people to congratulate her.
"YES YOU DID THAT TAY!!! SO proud!" she wrote on her Instagram Story.
Swift and Gomez were spotted toasting her music win at a celebratory dinner at the Monkey Bar in New York.
Selena Gomez congratulates Taylor Swift on gaining ownership of her masters:
— Pop Base (@PopBase) May 30, 2025
“YES YOU DID THAT TAY!!! SO proud!” pic.twitter.com/EQeluTZzC5
Selena Gomez with Taylor Swift last night 😍 pic.twitter.com/Ld69ptH455
— Selena Gomez Updates (@SGchartupdate) June 1, 2025
Swift has already re-recorded some of her old albums: 'Fearless (Taylor's Version)', 'Red (Taylor's Version)', 'Speak Now (Taylor's Version)' and '1989 (Taylor's Version)'.
Fans speculated that 'Reputation (Taylor's Version)' would be next, but now that she has her music rights back, that seems unlikely.
"I know, I know. What about Rep TV? Full transparency: I haven’t even rerecorded 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," Swift 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 six that I thought couldn’t be improved upon by redoing it. Not the music, or photos, or videos. So I kept putting it off.”
However, she is open to sharing unreleased songs from the album's vault. She also revealed that she has already re-recorded her debut album.
"I really love how it sounds now. Those two albums can still have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right."
Read Swift's full letter here.
The letter 😭😭😭😭😭🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻 @taylorswift13 @taylornation13 pic.twitter.com/abt9FIdMdX
— Taylor Nation13 (Taylor’s Version) (@taylornationtv) May 30, 2025
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Main image credit: Instagram/@taylorswift, @selenagomez