1989, and 2017âs
reputation â in an attempt to devalue and make redundant those albumsâ original master recordings, which are currently owned by an investment fund. The master recordings were first sold in 2019 by Swiftâs longtime label Big Machine Label Group to talent manager Scooter Braun â who has managed Ariana Grande, Kanye West, Demi Lovato, and Justin Bieber, among others â in a sale on which Swift was apparently not consulted. In 2020, Braun sold the recordings again, to investment fund Shamrock Holdings, who paid $300 million for the collection of recordings. After the sale, Swift released a statement saying that, despite negotiations with Shamrock, her team was unable to negotiate a desirable solution for both parties. As such, Swift decided to proceed with re-recording her albums part-by-part and note-by-note.