Taylor Swift has released a re-recording of her hit song “Love Story” on February 12th, 2021 just in time for Valentine’s day. This is the start of a new era as Swift and fans are going back in time to the beginning of her career as she re-records the first six albums to regain ownership of her music.
Taylor Swift was signed with Big Machines Records up until 2018 and recorded her first six albums with them. Once the contract was over, Big Machines still had control over her masters, and Swift left. Swift has always said that if her masters went up for sale, she wanted to buy them. Then, without her knowledge, Big Machines Records put her masters up for sale. Scooter Braun, a popular music manager for artists like Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, and Justin Beiber, bought her masters in 2019. Braun and Swift never had a good relationship (which everyone involved in the selling knew), so this was really hard for her to find out.
Braun then went on to sell Taylors masters (without her knowledge) to Shamrock Holders with a deal said to be $300 million. Swift was unaware that this was going on until she was contacted by the company trying to work a deal with her. Originally open to it, Swift then learned that Braun would still be profiting off of her music and Swift knew she could never, in her conscience, allow that to happen.
Swift released a statement to fans in November of 2020 letting them know what has been going on with her music and announced that she will be re-recording her first six albums to gain ownership of her life’s work. The fans, in full support, have been anxiously waiting for the albums to come out, with the first one being Fearless coming April 9, 2021. This starts the era of “Taylors Version” and gaining ownership of the work that got Swift to where she is now.
In the midst of all this madness, Swift was able to release two surprise albums, Folklore and Evermore, this year. The first album Folklore spent eight weeks as the number one album in the United States since debuting in July 2020, making it the longest-reigning number one album since 2017. Evermore ,which was released in December 2020, has been at number one for three nonconsecutive weeks now.
Taylor Swift has a busy upcoming year, but fans could not be more excited and proud of her. Be sure to stay on the lookout for some of your favorite classics coming soon!
Taylors Statement: https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/1328471874318311425?s=20
References
Caulfield, Keith. “Taylor Swift’s Evermore’ Back at No. 1 for Third Week on Billboard 200 Chart.” Billboard, 11 Jan. 2021, www.billboard.com/articles/business/chart-beat/9509345/taylor-swift-ever… r-one-billboard-200-third-week/.
“Taylor Swift Master Tapes Sold by Scooter Braun to Investment Fund.” BBC News, British Broadcasting Corporation, 17 Nov. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54969396#
Unterberger, Andrew. “Taylor Swift’s Surprise Set ‘Folklore’ Had 2020’s Biggest Debut — Here’s How It’s Still on Top Five Weeks Later.” Billboard, 11 Sept. 2020, www.billboard.com/articles/business/chart-beat/9446657/taylor-swift-folk… er-one/.