Taylor Swift isn’t the only one leaning into the Taylor’s Version era. While the singer is busy promoting the 30-track re-recorded version of her beloved Red album, the nation’s largest chain of radio stations, iHeartRadio, announced on Tuesday (Nov. 16) that fans listening to their 850 stations will only be able to hear the revamped titles on their network.
“iHeartRadio is replacing all of Taylor’s previous albums with the Taylor’s Version of each of them as Taylor releases each project, and will play only Taylor’s Version of her songs on the air,” read a story from iHeartRadio.
“Whenever Taylor re-records a new track, we immediately replace the old versions. Our stations will always deliver songs that artists are eager to share and fans want to hear,” said iHeartRadio chief programming officer Tom Poleman. “Listeners have made it known that they cannot wait to hear Taylor’s Version of each track. We are thrilled to provide a platform to share those with them, as well as the stories behind the songs from Taylor herself.”
According to iHeart, Swifties are already hearing Taylor’s Version versions on their stations, with Mediabase reporting that this week the top ten Version songs played include (in order): “Message In A Bottle (Taylor’s Version),” “I Bet You Think About Me,” “Love Story (Taylor’s Version),” “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version),” “You Belong With Me (Taylor’s Version),” “I Knew You Were Trouble (Taylor’s Version),” “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version),” “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Taylor’s Version),” and “22 (Taylor’s Version).”
So far, Swift has released Taylor’s Versions of her 2012 Red album and 2008’s Fearless, which both feature newly recorded takes on the original collections plus some unheard or newly recorded “From the Vault” tracks written during those eras but not included on the originals. The re-recording project began last year after the singer’s former label, Big Machine Group, was sold by manager Scooter Braun for $300 million in a deal that included the master rights to Swift’s first six albums.
