In her letter on Friday (May 30) announcing she achieved a long-time goal of owning the master recordings to all of her songs, Taylor Swift described herself as “endlessly thankful” to the private equity firm Shamrock Capital that sold Swift their holdings of her early music. In fact, Swift is “so grateful to everyone at Shamrock” that she jokingly said her “first tattoo might just be a huge shamrock in the middle of my forehead.”
Swift has not always spoken so warmly about the California-based investment firm — until they struck the deal she says she’d been seeking for years.
When news broke in November 2020 that Shamrock Holdings purchased Swift’s Big Machine Label Group catalog from Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings — marking the second time in 17 months that Swift’s first six albums had changed hands — the superstar said “it was the second time my music had been sold without my knowledge.”
In a letter Swift wrote to Shamrock Holdings at the time, which she shared on Twitter, she said she was initially hopeful for her “musical legacy and our possible future together.” But she said she could not partner with them because of certain undisclosed terms that Swift said would enrich Braun, related to her “music masters, music videos and album artwork.”
“I simply cannot in good conscience bring myself to be involved in benefiting Scooter Braun’s interests directly or indirectly,” Swift wrote in the letter.
Braun, who has disputed many of Swift’s assertions in the past, said simply on Friday (May 30), “I am happy for Taylor.”
In Shamrock’s statement after announcing its acquisition back in 2020, the company expressed admiration and respect for Swift’s work and professionalism, describing her as a “transcendent artist” with a “timeless catalog.”
“We made this investment because we believe in the immense value and opportunity that comes with her work,” Shamrock said in a statement at the time. “While we hoped to formally partner, we also knew this was a possible outcome … We hope to partner with her in new ways moving forward.”
At least publicly, that was that for about five years. But behind the scenes, Swift kept Shamrock abreast of her plans to re-record albums, according to statements from Swift. And privately, Shamrock explored selling Swift’s catalog, according to sources.
What prompted the sale now is not known. While Swift’s Taylor’s Versions of four of the albums Shamrock held the original recordings to had pulled some fans away from the originals, Swift’s overwhelming dominance as a global superstar resulted in the catalog held by Shamrock still generating nearly $60 million in average annual global revenue between 2022 and 2024, according to Billboard’s estimates based on Luminate data.
“The way they’ve handled every interaction we’ve had has been honest, fair, and respectful,” Swift wrote in her letter on Friday (May 30). “This was a business deal to them, but I really felt like they saw it for what it was to me: My memories and my sweat and my handwriting and my decades of dreams.”
Shamrock did not respond to requests for comment.
