Taylor Swift Can Re-Record Her First 5 Albums Now & Swifties Are Celebrating
One year after Taylor Swift revealed that Scooter Braun had purchased her first six studio albums, Swifties headed to social media to celebrate a big milestone. As of Sunday, Nov. 1, the "Shake It Off" hitmaker is free to re-record her original songs, and thus regain control of her entire back catalogue — and fans were so hype about it. These tweets about Taylor Swift re-recording her albums show Swifties cannot wait for the new editions of some of their favorite singles.
Fans might remember back in June 2019 when label owner Scooter Braun purchased Big Machine for $300 million, giving him and Ithica Holdings ownership over the albums Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation. Swift, who says she found out about the purchase when the official announcement was made, was reportedly negotiating to purchase the masters for her first six albums. Considering the singer's rocky relationship with Braun, she was devastated by the news, and quickly took to social media to accuse him of "incessant manipulative bullying" and tell fans she was "sad and grossed out" that he now controlled her records.
"When I left my masters in Scott [Borchetta's] hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter," she wrote on social media at the time. "He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them."
She also outlined why she was particularly upset with Braun controlling her music, adding, "All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years. Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it … Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked …"
Two months later, Swift revealed that she'd come up with a solution during an interview on Good Morning America: Re-recording her discography.
"My contract says that starting November 2020 — so, next year — I can record albums 1 through 5 all over again — I'm very excited about it," she said. She won't be able to re-record Reputation until 2022 since it was released in 2017.
At midnight on Nov. 1, Swifties took to Twitter and trended the phrase "Taylor is free" to celebrate the fact that she is now able to re-record and thereby legally own her old music.
Only time will tell when Swift decides to put out the highly-anticipated new versions of some of her biggest hits, but in the meantime, fans can support Swift-owned albums like Lover and Folklore and celebrate the coming re-releases on social media.
