Taylor Swift plans to re-record her first six studio albums after a contract deal gone awry and feuds with several different record labels and executives, according to multiple sources.
Scott Borchetta, Swift’s former manager at Big Machine Label Group, sold all of her masters, including her first six albums, to Scooter Braun for $300 million. Braun is a manager who works with popular musicians such as Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber.
Swift’s contract with Big Machine Records is up, which means she can start re-recording her first six albums. In an interview on Good Morning America, Swift described her plans to do so.
“It’s something that I’m very excited about doing because my contract says that starting November 2020… I can record albums one through five all over again; I’m very excited about it,” Swift said. Since this interview, Swift has claimed she will record the first six albums.
According to Rolling Stone, a contract doesn’t allow Swift to re-record albums until five years after the release date. With the contract, Borchetta and Braun were trying to prevent her from performing at the 2019 American Music Awards.
“It’s been announced recently that the American Music Awards will be honoring me with the Artist of the Decade Award at this year’s ceremony. I’ve been planning to perform a medley of my hits throughout the decade on the show. Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun have now said that I’m not allowed to perform my old songs on television because they claim that they would be re-recording my music before I’m allowed to next year,” Swift said in a Tweet.
Braun claims that Swift and Big Machine have been negotiating the situation away from the public eye. When Swift updated the public on Twitter, all negotiations were called off. In an interview on Variety, Braun shared his opinions on the matter.
“People need to communicate, and when people are able to communicate, I think they work things out. I think a lot of times, things are miscommunications because I believe that people are fundamentally good. I think there are a lot of real problems in the world, and I think that these problems that are being discussed can be discussed behind closed doors and figured out pretty easily, and it’s something I’ve wanted to do for six months,” Braun said.
Swift’s second album, “Fearless,” will be re-recorded and released first; it will be released as “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” on April 9. Just before Valentine’s Day, Swift released a single, “Love Story (Taylor’s Version),” from the new album. Fans expect more singles soon; in the meantime, new merchandise is available, along with the option to pre-order the album.
In a tweet promoting “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” Swift also announced the album’s inclusion of six previously unreleased songs.
“Only I know which songs I wrote that almost made the Fearless album. Songs I absolutely adored, but were held back for different reasons… I’ve decided I want you to have the whole story, see the entire vivid picture, and let you into the entire dreamscape that is my Fearless album,” Swift explained.
Fans like Christina Fu, a junior, are excited to hear the albums for the first time again, especially with new songs “from the vault.”
“An artist should be able to own their music and be able to do whatever they want. Even though she [Swift] is recording the same songs, I think it’s still an experience to listen to them again because they sound the same, but they also sound different since her voice has matured a lot,” Fu said.
Many fans are wondering whether or not Swift’s re-recorded albums will be eligible for awards such as the Grammys. They are technically eligible, but most voters favor new music, according to Billboard. When “Fearless” was first released in 2008, it was highly successful, winning both Album of the Year and Best Country Album at the Grammys in 2009.
Swift’s newest album, “Evermore,” was not yet eligible for Grammy nominations when it was released but might be considered for next year’s show. Because of this, fans suspect Swift will not want her re-records to be nominated if it means competing against her newest album. She is currently eligible for six awards from her recent album, “Folklore,” at the 63rd annual show on March 14 and will be performing there.
“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 […] This process has been more fulfilling and emotional than I could’ve ever imagined and has made me even more determined to re-record all of my music,” Swift said when she announced her re-recording of “Fearless.”
