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Private equity is beginning to look like part of the future of the music industry. However, private equity can be presented as harmful to artists in the music industry. The flaws in private equity investments continue to appear in the example of Taylor Swift’s music catalog. In 2019 Swift’s first 6 albums were acquired by a private equity group run by Scooter Braun. Later that year, Braun resold her masters to another private equity firm, Shamrock Capital Group for more than $300 million, according to an article by Financial Times. This led to Taylor Swift’s decision to re-record her music which she confirmed in a 2019 interview with Good Morning America, where she stated that her “contract says that starting November 2020” she can re-record her first five albums. This was because when Swift originally signed with Big Machine Records, her contract allowed her to own the lyrics to her songs but not the masters. Nonetheless, it also allowed her to re-record her albums after five years. In 2019 this investment proved profitable for Shamrock and Braun, as Swift had not released any re-recordings of her first 6 original albums.

That lasted until April 2021, when Swift announced her first re-recording of her second studio album Fearless. The re-recorded album was called which she named Fearless (Taylor’s Version), to symbolize that Swift owned this album. Using the Fearless album, Taylor Swift tested the waters for the re-recording process. The album performed exceptionally well with tracks like Fearless and The Way I Loved You outperforming their original versions. Following the Fearless (Taylor’s Version) album, Swift announced the re-recording of the Red (Taylor’s Version) album which was released in November 2021. The album topped the charts and outsold the original version, making headlines everywhere. 

In 2023 on Taylor Swift’s, The Eras Tour, she announced and released the Taylor’s Versions of both the Speak Now and 1989 albums. Keeping the trend with the last re-recordings, the albums outperformed the originals, and album sales were some of the highest in Swift’s career.

Although Swift successfully fought back against private equity firms, some artists view PE as a resource and a valuable investment in their catalog. According to an article from Axios, “Sometimes the sellers are record labels, like in Swift’s case, but often now they’re the artists themselves.” This is because when an artist puts their music rights up for sale buyers in private equity firms compete for the rights to their catalog, which makes the prices skyrocket. According to a City National Back article, “a typical purchase is equal to 10 to 15 times the current annual value of the rights.” Inflated prices for artists’ music rights can benefit them and allow them to sell their music rights and profit off the rights to their catalog in addition to receiving a portion of their future annual royalties.