Taylor Swift has begun the highly anticipated re-release of her first six albums. She is beginning with Fearless, her second studio album, its original release was on Nov. 11, 2008. Her first single from the re-recording “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” is available now. Taylor has written or co-written almost the entirety of her discography, including her third studio album Speak Now where each song is written solely by Taylor. Her music has resonated with her listeners from its origin and she has only strengthened that relationship, releasing her ninth studio album this past December.
COURTESY // E PALEN
Taylor’s first six albums will each be re-recorded and released owned completely by Taylor. The masters, the original audio recording where all future copies are generated from, to the original records are currently owned by an investment fund. Entrepreneur and record executive Scooter Braun sold them after he initially acquired the masters in his purchase of Big Machine Records, Swift’s former record label, in a sale in June 2019 for 300 million dollars. Just under a year and a half later Braun sold the masters to Swift’s music in a deal that earned him over 300 million dollars for the masters to her music alone. Swift was outspoken in her discontent in the sale and not being afforded the opportunity to purchase the rights to her records.
Taylor when speaking out on the sale said “As you know, for the past year I’ve been actively trying to regain ownership of my master recordings. With that goal in mind, my team attempted to enter into negotiations with Scooter Braun, I would have to sign a document that would silence me forever before I could even have a chance to bid on my own work. My legal team said that this is absolutely NOT normal, he would never even quote my team a price. These master recordings were not for sale to me”. Then Taylor was informed that her music had been sold to the investment fund when she received a letter from them. She wrote “This was the second time my music had been sold without my knowledge. The letter told me that they wanted to reach out before the sale to let me know, but that Scooter Braun had required that they make no contact with me or my team, or the deal would be off”.
Taylor is not the first artist to go to war over ownership, notably, The Beatles faced similar frustrations when Micheal Jackson acquired the rights to The Beatles discography in 1985. Taylor is also not the first to re-record music, many artists re-record for various reasons to use in films. Going as far as to re-record a song if the original does not display the sound an artist had originally intended. Def Leppard, similar to Swift, re-recorded their biggest hits in an attempt to regain ownership of their work in an alternative way.
Taylor has a long road ahead, and many will be watching to track the success of these six albums. Other artists who attempted similar ventures have not commonly received the positive public response they aimed for and the re-recordings were more often than not inferior to the original tracks. While success in the music industry typically translates to charting songs, selling albums, and large stadium tours, but these are achievements Swift has already had repeatedly over her career time and time again. The success Taylor is likely aiming for is her new releases being well received and loved by the fans of her music, and a sense of ownership over the music she has written. Although if anyone is to reach peak commercial success with the same songs twice in their career, it may be Swift. Taylor is topping the chart with “Love Story” for a second time, only now it’s Taylor’s Version.
