On Friday (May 30), Taylor Swift both announced that she has finally acquired the masters to her first six albums and gave an update on the long-awaited Reputation re-record — but fans suspect that, to top it all off, she also subtly teased her 12th album.
In a letter posted to her website, the pop star revealed that she finally has control over her entire body of work after purchasing back her masters from Shamrock Capital (for somewhere around $360 million, sources tell Billboard). The sale comes six years after Scooter Braun acquired her catalog from Scott Borchetta in 2019, after which the music manager sold his ownership of Swift’s music to Shamrock in late 2020.
“I’m trying to gather my thoughts into something coherent, but right now my mind is just a slideshow,” Swift wrote in her message, emphasizing how meaningful the acquisition is to her. “A flashback sequence of all the times I daydreamed about, wished for, and pined away for a chance to get to tell you this news.”
But what caught fans’ eye was what the 14-time Grammy winner wrote next. “All the times I was thiiiiiiiiiiiis close, reaching out for it, only for it to fall through.”
The statement may seem innocuous — and for all Swifties know, it is — but it’s hard not to focus in on the fact that she included no less than 12 “i”s when writing out the word “thiiiiiiiiiiiis.” Swift has released 11 albums over the course of her career, the last of which, The Tortured Poets Department, arrived in April 2023 and spent 17 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. That would make her next LP her 12th, a fact that has fans thinking she just teased the upcoming project with her note.
“THE LETTER HAS 12 I’s TS12 IS COMING SOON TOO OMG IM SO HAPPY FOR TAYLOR,” one fan wrote on X, sharing a screenshot of the letter.
“IT’S A TS12 SUMMER!!!” another fan posted, while a third Swiftie shared a screenshot of the letter and wrote, “I feel like ts12 just got so much closer.”
The 12-count “i” situation is just the latest suspected clue fans have picked up on ahead of the “Fortnight” singer’s predicted 12th album. Much fanfare was also made when Swift attended the 2025 Grammys wearing earrings with exactly 12 red jewels apiece, and in March, she used a sequence of 12 “D”s when praising Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco’s I Said I Love You First album on Instagram.
“I LOVE THIS ALBUM SO MUCH OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDD,” Swift wrote on her Story at the time.
Sharing screenshots of the earrings, the Gomez-Blanco post and the letter about her masters, one Swiftie wrote Friday, “SUDDENLY LIFE IS WORTH LIVING TS12 TRUTHERS RISE.”
But while fans may be excited about the prospect of Swift’s 12th album coming soon, it’s just one of many things they are celebrating. Social media has seen an outpouring of Swifties rejoicing over the musician finally owning her life’s work, something she wrote in her letter is her “greatest dream come true.”
The purchase comes after six years of publicly feuding with Borchetta and Braun over the way the original sale was handled, as well as the re-releases of four of her first six albums: Fearless, Speak Now, Red and 1989. In her letter, Swift emphasized how thankful she was to fans for sticking with her every step of the way.
“You’ll never know how much it means to me that you cared,” she wrote. “Every single bit of it counted and ended us up here. Thanks to you and your goodwill, teamwork and encouragement, the best things that have ever been mine… finally actually are.”
