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‘Feels bigger than herself’: the importance of Taylor Swift’s latest victory

World’s most famous pop star has finally bought back rights to her master recordings, a win for her but also a potentially major win for the industry

All of these were beyond impressive, if at times threatening overexposure and annoyingly at odds with her self-styled narrative as an underdog – the emotionally astute lyricist battling against a sliding scale of villains, from careless boys, bitchy girls and heartbreak to gossip, criticism and misogynistic double standards. For the following six years, even after Braun sold the catalog to private equity group Shamrock Capital for $360m, Swift re-recorded each album under the moniker “Taylor’s Version”, a business masterstroke that at once devalued the originals, ginned up nostalgia and set the stage for the Eras Tour. “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.” (Swift, the daughter of a Merrill Lynch stockbroker and forever a savvy dealmaker, also thanked Shamrock Capital for being “the first people to ever offer this to me” and praised the private equity firm for being “honest, fair, and respectful”.)

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