Taylor Swift's emotional journey to reclaiming her masters

One of my favorite things this summer

was Taylor reclaiming her masters. Um

her recording of her first six albums uh

finally uh became hers. Yeah.

>> And um you haven't really talked about

it. You made that beautiful post on all

your social channels thanking everyone

that that made it happen and everything,

but uh why don't you tell uh tell the

92enters how it really felt?

>> Oh wow. Um, so to catch anyone up who

doesn't know about this saga, like I

signed a record deal when I was 15. And

I always kind of refer to it as I got my

music back this this summer, but I never

owned my music at all. So,

traditionally, a lot of record deals are

set up in a way that artists don't own

what's called their master recordings.

Owning your master recordings means that

you have complete control and power over

distribution licensing

um, and essentially the way your legacy

is shaped. It's, it's, um, it's a huge

thing. It's always been a huge thing for

me. Like since I was a teenager, I've

been actively saving up money to buy my

music back and to to ever own it in the

first place because it's usually the

label that owns it. But I I've always

wanted this to happen. So, um, it's been

sold. My music has been sold a few

times. The first time that it was sold,

it really ripped my heart out of my

chest. And I told everybody exactly how

that felt for me and what I was going

through. And I started basically

defiantly re-recording my music because

I wanted

>> I wanted to own it. And this was the

only way I thought it was ever going to

happen. And so, um,

>> I knew she had a bad kid and she's got

she's got a little bit of a bad kid.

Yeah. It's not a bad kid. That's a

freaking savvy kid. That's what that is.

That's like, hey,

>> I've been told I've been defiant a lot

of times.

>> Well, you are defined. You're very

>> It's like I I um

>> insubordinate, Travis.

>> Insubordinate. Yeah. It's It's I think

for me, you know, that was the closest I

ever thought I would get to owning my

music. And so, re recording my music, it

was so exciting to get to have that

opportunity. But there was still like I

thought about not owning my music every

day. Um it was something that I never

was it was like an intrusive thought

that I had every day. And so we we do

the Aerys tour. Uh after the Aerys tour,

I had a meeting with my team and we we

decided this might be a good time to

approach the current owners of it. The

owners of it was um a private equity

firm called Shamrock Capital. I knew

them to be above board people. Uh, you

know, they had been very friendly to us.

Um,

what I was looking to do though was I

wanted to buy my music outright. I don't

want to be in a partnership. I don't

want to own 30% of it. I want it I want

to own all of it.

>> And you deserve that.

>> But it was a long shot to think that

they would do that, that they would sell

that that asset to me.

>> It's a big asset.

>> It's a huge decision for them to make to

sell that to anyone, including me. I

decided that rather than this be like a

a business conversation, I I'm in the

business of human emotion. I would so

much rather lead heart first in

something like this because for me this

is not oh I want to I want to own this

asset because of its returns because if

it's you know because of the dividends

that I will receive over the years

>> this was I want it because this is my

handwritten diary entries from my whole

life. These are the songs I wrote about

every phase of my life. This is my

photography, my music videos,

>> my most of which I funded. Yeah. You

know, my artwork, everything that I've

ever done is in this catalog.

>> And so rather than send lawyers or

management like in a big crew, I sent my

mom and my brother who I work with

>> to LA and they um sorry, they sat down

and they like this happens. I don't ever

really talk about it because it's um

>> they sat with um with Shamrock Capital

and they told them what this meant for

me. Like this is they they told them the

whole story of all the times we've tried

to buy it, all the times it's fallen

through, all the times we had gotten

plans together and figured out something

we thought was going to work and it

didn't at the last minute. And so like

my mom calls me afterwards. She's like,

"Look, you know, they were wonderful.

They they heard us out. we have no idea

which way they're going to go with this.

And so I was like, I get it. I get it.

I've I haven't gotten my hopes up about

this in a decade. Um, and so it was a

couple months after the Super Bowl.

We're in Kansas City. Um, and I get a

call from my mom and she's like

she's like,

"They they we we did you got your

music." Yeah.

>> And um so sorry that uh this is it's

literally been so long since this

happened. It's every time I talk about

it. Um she was like, "You got you got

your music." And I just like very

dramatically hit the floor for real.

Like honestly just started a long time

>> balling my eyes out and I'm just like

>> just just weeping and kind of like

unable. I was just like really are

really really what do you mean? What do

you mean? And I'm I'm like, "Get get

yourself together. Get your

together." Like, "Just go tell Travis in

a normal way."

>> Yeah.

>> And I knock on the door. He's playing

video games.

And I'm trying to say it in a normal

way. And I'm just like,

>> I'm like, "Oh no, what just happened?

What just happened?"

>> And he's like, he like puts his headset

down. He's like, "Guys, got to go." And

I think you thought something was wrong.

And you come up and I'm just like, "I

got all my music back." And then just

start absolutely heaving. dead weighted.

Just dead weighed. Literal control.

>> Had no power in my legs to support

myself. And um

>> yeah, this changed my life. Um I can't

believe it still. Every time I think

about it, it's like I have to tell the

short version to everyone because it is

still like this this will affect the

rest of my life. I think about this

every day now, but instead of it being

like an intrusive thought that hurts me,

it's I can't believe this happened. like

how lucky am I? How grateful am I? I'm

so grateful to like the artists that

helped me with my re-records because

when I did my re-records, I started

doing those in 2021.

>> Mhm.

>> And a lot of like most of the industry

trades were like, "This is a bad idea.

This is her sort of derailing her career

in a way. Nobody's interested in you

doing the same album twice. Fans are not

going to be engaged with this. This is

not going to go well for her."

>> Somebody knew though. And it was like I

still was able to like reach out to

friends of mine like like like Phoebe

Brides, Keith Urban, Marin Morris, Chris

Stapleton, you know, Haley Williams from

Paramore, Fallout Boy, like all these

absolutely incredible artists that like

shape who I am as an artist and um and

they like agreed to be a part of the

re-records. And I like, you know, I one

of the only people I told before this

happened was like I called Phoebe Brides

and I was just like

[Laughter]

and she's like, I think you just did you

just say what I think you said?

And so this has just been like it was

just I'm so grateful for it. It's um

>> it's just unbelievable. And I was so

happy you were there when that happened.

>> I mean I was

>> cuz I could not stand.

>> Yeah. I mean I started crying too. You

know, you were weeping.

>> I was I'm just so happy for you because

I've seen I've seen

>> how you make music. I've seen how you

make these videos. I've seen the effort

and the focus and the strategy behind

what just one album in torture poets

department and and and in Fortnite. And

I was blown away that you had been doing

this your entire life and for, you know,

your first six albums, you weren't given

the the rights to all of that. M

>> and I know what that that looked like

and I know how much it it burns you that

that you didn't have that and you didn't

have your creation. And I just I think

doing it the right way,

>> creating the fan base that you did the

right way and um and and leading your

life in a in a direction that you you

were eventually going to get it back

somehow someway because of you um always

doing things uh with the right

intentions. So

>> thanks

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