Taylor Swift has long been known for her fight to regain control over the rights to her original music—specifically, her first six albums. When that wasn’t possible, she chose to re-record those albums in her own voice, giving fans what we now know as the Taylor’s Version releases.
Recently, the singer surprised fans with major news: she has finally regained the rights to her original masters. According to Billboard, the deal may have cost Swift around $360 million.
However, the big question now is: how long will it take her to recover that investment? Based on the huge spike in streams of her original songs and her yearly revenue from music, estimates suggest Swift earned close to seven figures in just the first two days. And this is only the beginning.
The excitement around the songs released under Big Machine Records has reignited across major streaming platforms. Years ago, she publicly asked them to stop listening to the original versions and to support only the Taylor’s Version recordings. The response was so strong that Shamrock Capital, who had acquired the catalog, eventually decided to walk away from the investment entirely.
Now, Taylor Swift’s audience is taking the reverse path. For nearly five years, fans held back from listening to her original masters—but the numbers since May 30 show that’s changed. According to Billboard estimates based on Luminate data, streams of her debut album Taylor Swift jumped by nearly 500%, followed bySpeak Now (up 343.9%), Reputation (328%), Red (173.7%), and Fearless (140.4%).
That’s where the math comes in. Based on Swift’s average annual streaming income—around $120 million from platforms like Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Music—and factoring in a 25% spike in overall plays over just a couple of days, estimates suggest she may have earned close to $1 million on May 30 and 31 alone, just from her original catalog.
And here’s the key difference: now that she owns the rights to those masters, 100% of that revenue goes directly to her—no intermediaries involved.
Of course, the momentum will likely slow down after this initial surge. But it’s clear this is only the beginning. With Taylor Swift’s business instincts and loyal fanbase, her team will no doubt find plenty of ways to build on this moment. Within a little over a year, she could realistically recover the investment she made—powered in part by the massive success of The Eras Tour.
Buying back her masters is more than just a personal and artistic win for Taylor Swift—it’s also a smart business move. Now that she owns both the original recordings and the re-recorded versions, she can maximize her profits and fully control how her music is used, whether in films, TV shows, or major ad campaigns.
Original article in Spanish by LOS40 Spain.
©PRISA MEDIA USA, INC. All rights reserved.
PRISA MEDIA USA, INC, expressly reserves the right to reproduce and use the works and other services accessible from this website by machine-readable media or other suitable means.