Why is Taylor Swift Re-Recording Her Old Albums?

Taylor Swift has made the most of 2020, dropping two surprise records—Evermore, which released last Thursday, and Folklore, which debuted last July–and it seems that there's more to come.

In November 2020, two years after Swift’s initial 13-year obligation to Big Machine Records expired, so did her re-record clause. Now, she is free to re-perform and record every song from the six albums she released while at Big Machine. Though most artists do not re-record every song after changing labels, Swift has been vocal about her intention to do so since 2019, when Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine, thus gaining ownership of the label’s entire catalogue, including all of Swift’s masters. Upon learning of the deal, the singer took to Tumblr, writing, “All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years.”

Since then, Swift has publicly fought Braun’s profiting off of her work. Though Ithaca Holdings has since sold Swift’s catalogue to Shamrock Capital, a private equity firm, Braun and his company continue to make revenue off of the master recordings. 
 

While Shamrock owns the rights to her catalogue’s master recordings, it doesn't own the publishing rights to the pop star’s songs. In other words, Shamrock owns a particular recording of Swift singing at a particular time, but the singer herself owns the intellectual property behind the lyrics and melodies in the song and is free to use or reproduce them as she likes. If she feels like releasing all her own music on new masters, then she can do so, provided any re-record clauses have expired. 

The artist's conflict with her previous record label is not an unknown phenomenon in the music industry. Other artists, like 2000s pop sensation JoJo, have also re-recorded old albums to ensure that their music is shared and distributed on their own terms.

In just the month and a half since the expiration, the “Lover” singer has already begun—and finished—at least some of her re-records. Earlier this month, Swift lent her new “Love Story” recording to a Match.com commercial written by her friend, actor Ryan Reynolds. “Okay so while my new re-records are NOT done,” she tweeted, “my friend @VancityReynolds asked me if he could use a snippet of one for a LOLsome commercial he wrote so...here’s a sneak peak of Love Story! Working hard to get the music to you soon!!” 

Swift’s new music is a symbolic middle finger to Braun, as well as a clever business and artistic endeavor in its own right. The Grammy Award winner herself has said her voice now, at 31, is very different than it was when she was first signed to Big Machine at age 15. This means she has new spaces to show her artistic growth, and to provide fans, as well as herself, a space to reevaluate her music. 

Plus, her re-recordings will generate a significant amount of revenue. In order for a song to be licensed for use, ad agencies, movie studios, or whoever wishes to use it must obtain both commercial and artistic permission for use, meaning that both Shamrock and Swift would need to sign off if a song in her catalogue was to appear in a movie. Since she has never wanted to let Braun profit, Swift has always refused to sign off.