On Feb. 12, Taylor Swift made an announcement to the public on Good Morning America. Some fans who have been following her journey saw this announcement coming soon. Swift announced that she is finally releasing her re-recorded albums. She’ll be releasing each album separately, starting with the most awarded country album in history. “Fearless”. The new album, “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” is set to be released on April 9. It will include all of her songs from the original Fearless deluxe album, along with six songs that were almost included on the original album.
Swift is re-recording her albums because she no longer owns the rights to her first six albums. Since Swift is the author of the songs, she owns the music. However, she has no control over the usage of those songs anymore. The master tracks originally belonged to her record label, Big Machine Records. The owner of the record label, Scott Borchetta, sold Swift’s record to Scooter Braun. He did this without Swift’s permission.
Swift was livid that the music she made could be owned by anyone, with enough money to purchase it. Swift and Braun weren’t on friendly terms before Borchetta sold him the masters. This made the whole situation worse in Swift’s eyes. Swift switched record labels and is now at Universal Music Group, where she fully owns every song she makes.
This has shown artists that the music industry can be untrustworthy. Just because bad things happen in the industry doesn’t mean that artists shouldn’t make music or sign record deals. This situation has opened the eyes of artists, fans and many others in between. It seems like a simple concept that people should own what they’ve created. This album will be a representation of true ownership. It is also a gesture to the music industry. Artists will always find a way to own their own music.
Swift has been getting backlash for releasing songs that she has already made and earned a profit from. She isn’t re-recording her albums for profit. Money talks in the music industry, and Swift is trying to put an end to that. Musicians should own the songs they create, regardless of how much money, fame or power they have.
“The Grammys” also announced that the re-recordings of her albums will be eligible to receive awards. This announcement has caused another adverse reaction from some people. They believe it is unfair for songs that have already won a Grammy to be qualified to earn more.
Swift has been hard at work, as this is the third album she has announced in less than a year. In July of 2020, she released her album “Folklore.” In Nov.of 2020, she was allowed to begin re-recording her albums. In December of 2020, she released her ninth album, “Evermore”
There’s not a timeline of when her other re-recorded albums will be released, but “Swifties” are always coming up with theories about it. Swift initially announced that she would be re-recording her first five albums. In her social media posts about “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” she said she will be re-recording her first six albums. “Swifties” can expect a re-recorded “Reputation” album, as well. Whatever happens with the new albums Swift will always have her family, friends and fans behind her.