Singer and songwriter Taylor Swift recently obtained the rights to re-release her old albums under her own name. When Swift was 15 years old, she signed a deal with Big Machine Records (BMR). Due to Swift’s agreement with BMR, they were in charge of any music she wrote during her career including the copyright, known as owning her masters. In 2019, Swift’s contract ended with BMR, causing her to sign a new deal with Republic Records that would allow Swift to own her masters, meaning any new music put out is completely owned by her. Unfortunately for her, it did not apply to any albums that were released with her old contract.

Now under a new agreement Swift tried to negotiate with BMR to own her masters but the company refused. However, Swift owns the publishing rights to all her songs, meaning she can do what she wants with the writing itself. This gave her the idea to re-record all of her albums as a cover. Even though Swift may publish the songs the way she wants, she has to wait until her contract for commercial release in the media is up.

These new songs are known as “Taylor’s Version” (TV). Streaming these tracks gives Taylor the opportunity to gain the funds from her listeners that many people feel she deserves. Swift has currently re-released two of her old albums, “Fearless” in April 2021, and “Red” in Nov. 2021. 

She has been covering her older albums all while releasing new ones that fall into her contract with Republic Records. In this time Swift released “Lover” in 2019, “Folklore” in 2020, “Evermore” in 2020 and “Midnights” in 2022. Swift’s newest album, “Midnights,” was a complete surprise to listeners as many thought that the next collection of songs would be TV. Fans, also known as Swifties, have been eagerly waiting for Swift to release more TV songs as it has been almost two years since the last release. Swift still has “Taylor Swift,” “Speak Now,” “1989” and “Reputation” to re-release. She is planning on releasing all of them in the near future.

Many believe that “Speak Now” is coming up next because at the beginning of March 2023, the trademark suspension was dropped, which means that at any point Swift is able to make her cover of the album.

Furthermore, once she is done with her Eras Tour in late 2023, she may write new songs for all her Swifties to enjoy. After dealing with BMR for over 10 years, Swift is finally free to do whatever she wants with her albums. This has drawn even more fans to enjoy her music, lighting her career on fire.       

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