{"id":45067,"date":"2021-11-20T17:18:20","date_gmt":"2021-11-20T17:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=45067"},"modified":"2021-12-18T19:48:59","modified_gmt":"2021-12-18T19:48:59","slug":"everything-has-changed-the-story-behind-why-taylor-swift-is-re-recording-her-albums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/everything-has-changed-the-story-behind-why-taylor-swift-is-re-recording-her-albums\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Everything has changed\u201d: the story behind why Taylor Swift is re-recording her albums"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong style=\"font-size: inherit\">Following the release of Red (Taylors version), Taylor Swift has four albums left to re-record in order to own the masters to all her music.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On November 12th, Taylor Swift released her long awaited album, Red (Taylors Version) which includes 10 unreleased tracks that were intended for the original album in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It never would have been possible to go back &amp; remake my previous work, uncovering lost art &amp; forgotten gems along the way if you hadn\u2019t emboldened me. Red is about to be mine again, but it has always been ours. Now we begin again. Red (my version) is out<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZUAWDuv4jL\">https:\/\/t.co\/ZUAWDuv4jL<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Ji26KdOlWQ\">pic.twitter.com\/Ji26KdOlWQ<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/taylorswift13\/status\/1459023801480474632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 12, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2019, she announced that she will be re-recording her first six albums: Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation. This announcement followed her old management, Big Machine Records, selling her masters to Scooter Braun. On April 9 2021, she released the first of her re-recordings,&nbsp;Fearless (Taylors Version).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Swift first signed to Big Machine Records in 2005 when she was 15. However, after six very successful albums with them, she switched to Universal&#8217;s Republic Records when her contract ended in 2018.\u00a0When speaking about the topic on <a href=\"https:\/\/taylorswift.tumblr.com\/post\/185958366550\/for-years-i-asked-pleaded-for-a-chance-to-own-my\">Tumblr<\/a>, Swift said: \u201cI walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, as Big Machine Records owns the masters to her albums, it meant that she left behind all ownership of her music.\u00a0In her Tumblr post, Swift also said that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><strong> \u201cFor 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 \u2018earn\u2019 one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>After she left Big Machine Records, Scott Borchetta, founder of the label, &nbsp;sold the company, and her masters, to Scooter Braun, a music manager for artists such as Justin Bieber.&nbsp;In November 2020, Braun then sold her masters to Shamrock Holdings for a reported&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.seventeen.com\/celebrity\/music\/a34692323\/taylor-swift-fans-believe-bought-back-masters-from-scooter-braun\/\">\u00a3300 million.&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the original sale, Swift revealed on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/taylorswift13\/status\/1328471874318311425\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0that her team weren&#8217;t even quoted a price regarding buying her masters and she was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement that would force her not to say anything bad about Braun before they could negotiate.\u00a0Braun&#8217;s team later disputed her claims, with Braun telling <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2020\/music\/news\/scooter-braun-sells-taylor-swift-big-machine-masters-1234832080\/\">Variety<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0he &#8220;offered to sell her the catalogue back and went under NDA, but her team refused\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Been getting a lot of questions about the recent sale of my old masters. I hope this clears things up. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sscKXp2ibD\">pic.twitter.com\/sscKXp2ibD<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/taylorswift13\/status\/1328471874318311425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 16, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite not owning her masters, as the writer of her music, she still owns the publishing rights, meaning she is able to turn down requests for commercial use of her music. By re-recording her albums, she can ensure that all profits of her music go to her and her fans can listen to the music knowing they&#8217;re supporting her directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By speaking up about her experiences and fighting for her masters, Swift is showing&nbsp;many other artists in similar situations that they don\u2019t have to sit and let this happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When she signed with universal, she made sure to secure the ownership of her future albums to ensure this didn\u2019t happen again. She now currently owns the masters to Lover, Folklore, Evermore, Fearless (Taylors version) and Red (Taylors version).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to read more? You might like\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/taylor-swift-red-release\/\">Red (Taylor\u2019s Version): Don\u2019t Call It A Comeback<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/another-surprise-from-taylor-swift-all-too-well-sad-girl-atumn-version\/\">Another surprise from Taylor Swift: All Too Well (Sad Girl Autumn Version)<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Words: Tia Janowski | Subbing:&nbsp;Hannah Ozkadi<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Image Credits:&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo of Taylor Swift: jazills, CC by 2.0&nbsp;&lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\">https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0<\/a>&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo of Scooter Braun: Ashley Graham, CC BY 3.0 &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\">https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0<\/a>&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following the release of Red (Taylors version), Taylor Swift has four albums left to re-record in order to own the masters to all her music.&nbsp; On November 12th, Taylor Swift released her long awaited album,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":45068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,23,42,92],"tags":[809,5170,5481,6100,6101],"class_list":["post-45067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-culture","category-celebrity","category-entertainment","category-music","tag-big-machine-records","tag-red-taylors-version","tag-scooter-braun","tag-taylor-swift","tag-taylor-swift-re-recordings"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45067"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47279,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45067\/revisions\/47279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}