The Reasons Behind Taylor Swift’s Re-Releases

Photo Via Twitter

By Sarah Heppler

In part of a retaliation effort against her former record label Big Machine Label Group, Taylor Swift re-released her album Red (Taylor’s Version) in mid November.  This is her second re-release of a previously recorded album, the first being Fearless (Taylor’s Version) which debuted in April of this year.  

Swift began re-recording her albums due to a battle with her former label Big Machine over the rights to her first six albums.  Her contract stated that she did not own the rights to her original recordings, which meant that she could not fully profit off of them.  Although Swift does not officially own her master versions, she does own the publishing rights which means she can perform and reproduce these albums at her will.

News of this battle for ownership of her original masters came into the public eye on June 30, 2019, through a Tumblr post by Swift herself.  In this post Swift stated that Scott Borchetta, former owner of Big Machine, refused to sell Swift the rights to her original masters.  Instead, he offered her a contract renewal where she could “sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one [she] turned in.”  Swift refused this offer and left her masters in the hands of Borchetta, which he would eventually sell to Scooter Braun, manager of artists such as Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, and Kanye West. 

This post explicitly called out Braun and Borchetta, stating that they “stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”  Swift continued by stating “Thankfully, I am now signed to a label that believes I should own anything I create” referencing her new contract with the label Republic Records. 

In the 2 1/2 weeks that Red (Taylor’s Version) has been released to the public, it has earned more profit and more notoriety than the original release.  In the first week of the album's release, it accumulated 303 million streams and 369 thousand in sales in the United States alone.  Fearless (Taylor’s Version) has now reached almost 500 thousand streams, and has surpassed the original by about 400 thousand streams.

The release of Red (Taylors Version) gained much of its popularity with fans due to its 13 bonus tracks, much of which being unreleased songs.  Among these tracks is a 10-minute version of her previously released song “All Too Well”, which fans have rumored to exist since the initial release of Red in 2012.  This 10 minute version of the song, along with a short film directed by Swift, is already the definitive fan favorite of the album.   

Both re-releases have been distinguished from their original release with new album art and the addition of “(Taylors Version)” to each track title and the album titles themselves.   Loyal fans of Swift, or Swifties, now choose to only listen to Taylor’s versions of these two albums to ensure that they are supporting Swift’s music endeavors and not adding to the profit of Braun.  

Swift will be re-recording all six of her first albums since these are the albums she recorded under contract with Big Machine.  The immediate success of these two re-recordings with Republic Records only solidifies that the next four will have the same acclaim.