Taylor Swift was born in 1989 and has officially, as of the first of November 2023, released ten studio albums and has re-released four of them. Many nonfans, and even fans, of hers do not fully understand why she would do this, and it seems to be a big deal among the true Taylor Swift listeners. On her list of to-do’s there are only two more blank spaces when it comes to re-recordings.
The newer, re-recorded albums have the same name and mostly the same songs as the old albums, but the title will feature “(Taylor’s version)” after it. These albums also include “vault tracks.” Vault tracks are songs that she may have written during that time or songs that she felt fit with the vibes of the album, but never got released. They will be listed at the very end of the setlist and will include an extra set of parenthesis reading “(From the vault)” next to it. She announced that she was re-recording only the first six, not seven, but six of her albums.
This is because Taylor Swift published her first albums with Big Machine Records, and they are now owned by the man known as Scooter Braun who owns the former label. Braun owned the master recordings, meaning that Swift was not making as much off of those first six albums as she could have. Some may call this simply a champagne problem, but everyone wants to make more money than they do, and she saw the opportunity. Since Braun is such a mean person, he sold the rights to Swift’s first six albums within 17 months of owning Big Machine Records. Swifties were haunted by this, but they knew that they would make him face karma soon. At the time that Swift switched publishing companies, Universal Music’s Republic Records was trying to buy Big Machine Records, so Swift began working with Universal Music’s Republic Records, who gave her control over her master recordings, in the hopes that she would be able to once again own her original recordings of the first six. Sadly, Big Machine Records was bought by Scooter Braun for $300 million in the cruel summer of 2019.
Fans of Taylor Swift were using their masterminds and bullying Scooter Braun online for years after this, and they still continue to. He was also burning bridges with many clients who would later accuse him of being “addicted to fame and power.” These artists soon began to realize they simply should’ve said no to begin with.
Then, Swift had an epiphany. She came up with the idea of re-recording those first six albums. She would have full rights to the newer versions, and she would still make a little off of the older albums in royalties. While some saw her as a mad woman, fans immediately were excited when they heard about the news and Fearless (Taylor’s version), as well as Red (Taylor’s version) were on the charts right after they came out. They surpassed the original versions within days of the initial re-release. Fearless (Taylor’s version) had over 400 million streams within the first few weeks and the original recordings only had 257 million streams. Swift finally having access to the resources that allow her to create these re-recordings must have been a state of grace for her.
While Taylor Swift still does not own the copyright to those first six albums, she does, however, own the “publishing rights.” This means that the melody and lyrics are fully owned by her and that she can publish as many re-recordings as she would like, and she has decided to fearlessly use this to her advantage. It appears the major opinion among most businessmen is that almost no artist is typically or will ever typically be able to pull off re-releasing a song. Fans want new music, not a re-recording of older songs, yet Taylor Swift still has a growing fanbase, not to mention that her reputation seems to be continuously drug through the mud.
Long story short, it is Taylor Swift’s continuous popularity that has enabled her to re-release these first albums. Without the fanbase she has, it would not be possible to accomplish. When Swift originally released Red, she got 254 million streams, but the newer Taylor’s version got almost one billion streams. Fans were making the deliberate choice to support her over her wicked counterpart. Maybe once Taylor Swift re-releases the last two of these albums, she will finally have some peace.
