Ever since Taylor Swift’s Big Machine Label Group catalog was purchased in June 2019 by Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings (and more recently, Shamrock Holdings), the superstar has made a plan to re-record her first five albums in an attempt to own her music given the difficult circumstances.
At the time, Swift revealed that in November 2020, her contract allows her to re-record her self-titled debut, 2008’s Fearless, 2010’s Speak Now, 2012’s Red and 2014’s 1989.
Now that November 2020 is here, and Swift is in the process of re-recording, we’re looking back on everything Taylor Swift has said about it. See below.
August 2019 – CBS Sunday Morning interview
Swift told CBS News’ Tracy Smith that she’s going to create the new masters to offset the deal. “That’s a plan?” Smith asked.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Swift replied
August 2019 – Good Morning America interview
When Robin Roberts asked about whether the reports that Swift plans to re-record her first six albums were accurate, Swift said, “Yeah, that’s true and it’s something that I’m very excited about doing because my contract says that starting Nov. 2020, so next year, I can record albums one-five all over again. I’m very excited about it. Because I think that artists deserve to own their work. I feel very passionate about that… it’s next year. It’s right around the corner. I’m gonna be busy. I’m really excited.”
December 2019 – Billboard Woman of the Decade cover story
“Every week, we get a dozen synch requests to use ‘Shake It Off’ in some advertisement or ‘Blank Space’ in some movie trailer, and we say no to every single one of them,” Swift explained. “And the reason I’m rerecording my music next year is because I do want my music to live on. I do want it to be in movies, I do want it to be in commercials. But I only want that if I own it.”
“It’s going to be fun, because it’ll feel like regaining a freedom and taking back what’s mine,” she said of the re-recording process. “When I created [these songs], I didn’t know what they would grow up to be. Going back in and knowing that it meant something to people is actually a really beautiful way to celebrate what the fans have done for my music.”
November 2020 – Taylor is free to re-record her songs, and is already doing so
After Swift’s masters were sold again to Shamrock Holdings, Swift posted to Twitter that she has “recently begun re-recording my older music and it has already proven to be both exciting and creatively fulfilling. I have plenty of surprises in store.”
