Billboard Explains Why Taylor Swift is Re-Recording Her First Six Albums

In 2019, Taylor Swift announced plans to re-record her first six albums, the projects that made her a star. Now, Taylor is rolling out those re-recorded albums, beginning with Fearless, Taylor's version. But what would motivate her to re-record these albums, and what does she stand to gain by doing so? This is Billboard Explains Why Taylor Swift is Re-Recording Her Old Albums. If you heard one of Taylor's songs like Shake It Off from her album 1989 in a TV show, film, or even a commercial, it's because Big Machine Records, the original label A master recording refers to the actual original recording of a song or an album, and in the music industry, royalties derived from master recordings are one of the biggest ways to earn money from a song or album. However, Taylor would receive only a certain percentage of the royalties from that licensing deal given her initial contract with Big Machine. In 2018, Taylor's deal with Big Machine Records ended and she joined Universal Music Group. Her new deal enabled her to own her masters going forward. However, her first six albums were still controlled by her old label. Since leaving Big Machine, Taylor has refused to allow songs from her original six albums to be licensed for movies, TV shows, video games, and more for this reason. Taylor still has veto power as licenses require the approval of all songwriters, collaborators, and publishing owners. In 2019, Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine Label Group and all of its recorded music assets, including Taylor's first albums, valued to be well over $300 million. This ignited a public feud between Taylor and Scooter, with Taylor claiming she was never given the opportunity to purchase her master recordings by Big Machine founder and CEO Scott Borchetta before he sold them. So during an August 2019 interview with CBS This Morning, Taylor announced a plan to overcome Scooter's purchase of her masters altogether by re-recording her first six albums. So what does Taylor stand to gain by re-recording her original music? First, she'll have creative control over how her music is used when it comes to licensing deals and earn a larger percentage of the sales of her music. But there's one catch. Buyers will have to license, stream, or buy the re-recorded version, not the old one. Second, it will make her albums owned by Big Machine and Shamrock Holdings, whose Scooter's Ithaca Holdings sold her music to in November 2020, less valuable. But for Taylor, it isn't just about the money. It's also about owning her life's work and the songs she wrote that made her a household name. Taylor's move to re-record her albums isn't unprecedented. Artists who have re-recorded their old songs before include Frank Sinatra, Def Leppard, Prince, and JoJo, just to name a few. But Taylor is taking it to a whole new level, taking on six albums and adding previously unreleased songs to her new re-recorded versions, which will only increase fan and public interest. They're getting a snapshot of where Taylor was at the time of releasing these classic albums and then getting some bonus material in addition to what they already know and love. Plus, Taylor's public battle over the ownership of her mass recordings has provided an invaluable lesson to the next generation of artists when it comes to the importance of owning one's creative property and turning her into an advocate for artists' rights in the process.