When did Fearless (Taylor’s Version) come out?
Swift’s first re-release in her ongoing re-recording project, a new version of her 2008 smash album Fearless, arrived on April 9, 2021. In addition to containing all 19 tracks from the original Fearless, Swift’s 2010 soundtrack single “Today Was a Fairytale” was also included in the re-release, as were six more bonus tracks.
When did Red (Taylor’s Version) come out?
Nov. 12, 2021! Swift originally announced that her second re-release, Red (Taylor’s Version), would arrive on Nov. 19, 2021. But on Sept. 30, 2021, she revealed that she was actually dropping the new version earlier than planned.
Why is Taylor Swift remaking and re-releasing Fearless, Red and other old albums?
Why did Taylor Swift leave her old label?
Swift announced in November 2018 that she was leaving Big Machine Records for Republic Records and Universal Music Group. At the time, she thanked Big Machine Records founder Scott Borchetta for believing in her when she was just a teenager trying to make it in Nashville. Swift would later reveal that she attempted to negotiate with Big Machine to gain ownership of the masters of her first six albums, but was turned down. The conditions of her new contract would stipulate that Swift would retain ownership of her master recordings on the label, and ensured that any potential sales of Universal Music and Republic Records’ shares in Spotify would “result in a distribution of money to their artists.”
Which albums is Taylor Swift re-recording?
Swift released Fearless (Taylor’s Version), a re-recorded album of Fearless with additional previously unreleased tracks “from the vault,” on Apr. 9, 2021. In June 2021, she announced that Red (Taylor’s Version) will arrive on Nov. 19, 2021—but as noted above, she bumped that up to Nov. 12, 2o21. She also plans to re-record Taylor Swift, Speak Now, 1989 and Reputation. However, she won’t be able to re-record that last one until 2022, per her prior contract with Big Machine.
What happened between Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun?
Though Swift was initially on good terms with Borchetta and Big Machine Records, Borchetta soon sold Big Machine (including her master recordings) to Scooter Braun for a reported $300 million. She considered Braun an enemy because of his close ties with Kanye West (with whom Swift infamously feuded for more than a decade since he interrupted her Best Female Video acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV VMAs) and Justin Bieber. She accused Braun and Bieber, not just West, of bullying her for years. When Braun and Borchetta announced the Big Machine purchase, Swift wrote on Tumblr that it was a “worst case scenario” for her, adding, “This is what happens when you sign a deal at 15 to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says ‘Music has value,’ he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it.” She added, “When I left my masters in Scott’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter. Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words ‘Scooter Braun’ escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to. He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever.” She also fumed, “Scooter has 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. For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work. Instead, I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in.” In November 2019, Swift alleged that Borchetta and Braun blocked her from performing her older songs at the American Music Awards, as well as from using her music in her Netflix documentary Miss Americana. At the Billboard Women in Music celebration in December 2019, Swift once more went on the attack, telling the crowd of Braun, “Let me just say that the definition of toxic male privilege in our industry is people saying, ‘But he’s always been nice to me’ when I’m raising valid concerns about artists and their rights to own their music. And of course, he’s nice to you, if you’re in this room, you have something he needs…The fact is that private equity is what enabled this man to think, according to his own social media posts, that he could ‘buy me.’ But I’m obviously not going willingly.”
Who owns Taylor Swift’s masters now?
Right now, Swift owns the masters to Lover, folklore, evermore and Fearless (Taylor’s Version). Swift will release Red (Taylor’s Version) on November 19, 2021, and will also own the masters to those recordings. Braun originally purchased Big Machine Records through the company Ithaca Holdings. The purchase of the label included the masters for Swift’s albums Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation. In November 2020, it was reported that Braun once more sold Big Machine Records’ assets, including Swift’s masters of her first six records, to an investment firm for $450 million.
Why is Taylor Swift re-recording her albums?
Swift revealed that she planned to re-record her first five albums beginning in November 2020, a move many believed was inspired by Kelly Clarkson, who suggested Swift do so on Twitter. Swift said on Good Morning America that she was “very excited” about the re-recordings, explaining, “I think that artists deserve to own their work. I feel very passionately about that.” In her announcement of Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in February 2021, she added that it’s important to re-record her masters because only the artist truly knows their body of work inside and out. There’s also a capitalist motive for the business-savvy Swift: Re-recording her previous work is one way for her to at least partially ensure that profits from the streams, sales and licensing of her songs will go into her pockets, not Braun’s, Borchetta’s or whoever else may own the rights to her previous masters. Her re-recordings, in effect, will at least somewhat devalue the songs’ prior releases, hitting her enemies where it hurts: Their wallets.
How are Taylor Swift’s re-recordings different?
So far, Swift’s re-recordings are quite loyal to their original versions, but her voice has changed since she was a teen. It’s generally a bit stronger and deeper in tone, and the Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, native dropped her faux-Southern accent that she employed on her earlier country recordings. Next, catch up on Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn’s love story!
