Yes, it’s another Taylor Swift post! And yes, I’m listening to Taylor Swift while I write this. If you follow Taylor, you’ll probably be aware that she’s rerecording her first 6 albums. If you don’t, you’re probably wondering why an artist would choose to rerecord their old albums. For those who don’t know, a brief history (and I swear I’ll keep it brief). A few years back, Taylor left the record label she signed to as a teenager, and signed a deal with a new label. Anything from her Lover album onwards was released with her new label. Her old albums (the first five) were released under her old label and, as part of her contract, the label owned the master versions (the recordings themselves) of the songs. Taylor wanted to buy the rights to these masters, but was denied the opportunity, and the masters were sold to a third party, who happens to have a history with Taylor we won’t go into, but suffice to say, she was not happy. Why would someone want to own masters? Well, the owner of the masters earns royalties any time the music is sold, streamed, or licensed for use in movies etc. And, naturally, Taylor Swift masters earn a lot. Not wanting money from her art to go into the hands of the new owner of the masters, Taylor has decided to rerecord her old music now the terms of her contract allow her to do so. Even better, under her contract with her new label, she owns all of her masters. Her 6th album, reputation, cannot be rerecorded until November 2022 (5 years since its release), but her first four albums are now free to be rerecorded. And now, we reach the present day, when the rerecording is well underway, and Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is due for release April 9th.
Read More »
You must be logged in to post a comment.