What Taylor Swift buying her masters means for her — and the music industry

By now, we know all too well about the power of Taylor Swift.

With her epic Eras Tour alone, the pop superstar went from crashing Ticketmaster to boosting the economy in every city she visited to going around the movie studio system for its theatrical concert film.

But Swift’s latest power move may be her biggest one yet: The “Anti-Hero” singer finally bought back the master recordings of her first six studio albums — from her 2006 self-titled debut to 2017’s “Reputation.”

In 2019, Scooter Braun gained control of Swift’s masters after he acquired her former label, Big Machine Records, which owned the rights. After attempts to buy back her catalog from Braun failed, Swift began re-recording her albums and releasing “Taylor’s Versions” of them, beginning with “Fearless” and “Red” in 2021 and then “Speak Now” and “1989” in 2023.

Then, in 2020, Braun turned around and sold Swift’s Big Machine catalog to Shamrock Capital for reportedly over $300 million.

Five years later, though, Swift’s music is now back where it belongs.