On May 30, Taylor Swift fans began celebrating the news that their queen had finally gained control of her masters by streaming, downloading and buying her music like crazy.
As Billboard reports, Taylor’s entire catalog, including her first six albums on Big Machine, experienced more than a 72% increase in activity following the 11:30 a.m. ET announcement of the news. And on May 31, consumption of her music increased even more.
According to Billboard, Taylor’s album downloads alone increased by more than 3,520% in those two days, while physical album sales increased by 153%.
As for streaming, Taylor’s catalog streams increased by nearly 36% over those two days; even her radio airplay experienced a slight uptick.
As previously reported, Taylor announced via a letter on her website that she was able to buy back the rights to her first six albums from their most recent owner, Shamrock Capital, in what was reportedly a nine-figure deal. Shamrock purchased Taylor’s masters from Scooter Braun‘s Ithaca Holdings in 2020; Braun had purchased them in 2019 as part of his acquisition of Taylor’s former record label, Big Machine.
Taylor wrote that she now owns all her videos, concert films, album art, photography, unreleased songs — or, as she put it, “The memories. The magic. The madness. Every single era. My entire life’s work.”
Taylor’s campaign to rerecord her first six albums was her way of rendering the originals less valuable, thus punishing their owners. But now that all the music is in her possession, she can financially benefit from both the originals and the rerecorded versions on a much greater scale than she could before.
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