Taylor Swift released her first re-recording album, Fearless, early this month. But why is she re-recording? We’ll cover that and also what Taylor Swift’s re-recordings mean to new or younger artists out there.
Taylor Swift debuted at a very young age. She was only 19 when she released her first album, Taylor Swift. But her career had started almost half a decade earlier. She met Scott Borchetta in 2004. Taylor signed with Borchetta’s record label, Big Machine Records, when she was only 14.
This is a vital information, as Taylor had no legal background. For a teenager whose dream had always been to sing, owing her work didn’t pose a big question. Taylor stayed with Big Machine Records till 2018, with which she released six albums. In June 2019, her dreams came crashing down her Scooter Braun bought the company. Which meant he would own her music, artwork, and music videos that she has since created.
Taylor released a public note saying that she has been trying to get the masters of her work for years, but she wasn’t able to. She also revealed she had no information about the deal between Borchetta and Braun.
With absolutely no win situation, Taylor left and joined Universal Group. She then proceeded to release her first owned album, Lover, which became Taylor’s sixth consecutive album to sell more than 500,000 copies in one week in the U.S. But while her new album was doing great, what was going to happen to her former albums?
Taylor then announced that, as soon she will be legally able to, she will start re-recording her first albums. What does that mean? Planning to change very little and staying true to her younger self, Taylor released Fearless (Taylor’s Version) on April 9. Fearless was her second album, but the first among Taylor Swift’s re-recordings. But Taylor’s Version includes never-heard-before (or so she thinks) songs “From the Vault.”
So what does that mean for younger artists?
For many years, Taylor has been fighting for artists’ rights. She withheld her entire catalog for Spotify until they agreed to pay new artists more. She also wrote Apple Music a lengthy letter blasting the service for not offering royalties to artists during the streaming service’s free three-month trial period.
Taylor Swift’s re-recordings mean that younger artists have it easier to argue for their rights to own their music. She paved the way for the newer generation to be able to do what their love, and be in charge of how their music is distributed. She wrote in March 2021: “Artists should own their own work for so many reasons. But the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really knows that body of work.”
So how are Taylor Swift’s re-recordings going to play out? Since she started with her second album, there’s an online theory going on that she will release the albums to spell FIRST. You probably must know already Taylor is a huge fan of Easter Eggs. Taking into account that theory, her next one would be 1989. She has already released some hints about it, including a snippet of “Wildest Dreams (Taylor-s Version)”. Then, she might release Red, Speak Now and her debut album, Taylor Swift. Given that reputation was her last album and released in 2017, she has to wait till 2022 to be able to re-record it.
Until then, Taylor is smashing records left and right. Her Fearless (Taylor’s Version) tops Billboard 200, but that’s not all. While that’s no small feature, it comes easily to Swift. Taylor now occupies eight spaces on this week’s Billboard 200, the most among all artists this time around. Congratulations, Taylor!
