How Much Has Taylor Swift Paid to Reclaim Her Music?
The singer has invested a significant amount from her 'The Eras Tour' earnings
Taylor Swift now owns all of her music. And when we say all of it, we mean all of it. Even songs she wrote as a child now belong to her, following a financial move that’s currently making headlines.
Everyone wants to know: how much did it cost the artist to reclaim her songs?
An Estimated Price Tag of $360 Million
There hasn’t been any official confirmation yet from either the buyer or the sellers, but early reports from industry outlets like Billboard, which have followed the case closely from the beginning, suggest a sale price of $360 million.
It all began on that infamous night in 2021 when Big Machine Records sold Taylor Swift’s catalog to Scooter Braun behind the artist’s back and without her consent, triggering an open war with one of her biggest personal and professional rivals.
The situation escalated to the point where Swift chose to stop promoting all of her previously recorded songs and launched a parallel path in her career, re-recording her first six studio albums after changing record labels.
The Taylor’s Version re-releases became a massive phenomenon, effectively ending the profit stream that Braun and his partners had banked on. Shamrock, the investment firm that owned the rights until just a few days ago, had initially sought over $600 million, but in negotiations, it seems the goal became to unload a depreciating asset.
According to Billboard, Shamrock originally paid around $300 million for Swift’s catalog. Over the four years they held the rights, they earned about $100 million in profits, plus a $60 million gain from selling the rights back to Swift—$160 million total. But from that sum, royalties, marketing costs, and other expenses must be deducted. Overall, it turned out to be a far less lucrative business than it could have been.
“My Life’s Work Belongs to Me”
Because Taylor Swift’s real impact is still enormous and unmatched. Her most recent tour, The Eras Tour, generated billions—and she’s used part of that revenue to reclaim the songs of her life:
“All the music I’ve made… now… belongs to me. And all the music videos. And concert films. The creative art and album photography. The unreleased songs. The memories. The magic. The madness. Every single era. My life’s work. To say this is my biggest dream come true is putting it lightly. To my fans, you know how important this has been for me—so much so that I meticulously re-recorded and released four of my albums as Taylor’s Version. The visceral support you’ve shown these projects, and the success of The Eras Tour, is the reason I was able to buy back my music. I can’t thank you enough for helping me reunite with the art I’ve dedicated my life to, but never truly owned until now.”
Swift has long been an advocate for fairer pay to creators, composers, and singers from streaming platforms. And now, she’s once again taught the industry a lesson about respecting artists who have the power to mobilize their audience—and dismantle business strategies made behind closed doors, without the artist’s consent. Even if it meant writing a check for $360 million out of her vast fortune.