This story previously ran in our September 2023 print issue.
From country singer to pop phenomenon, Taylor Swift has done it all — and now she’s doing it again.
With 10 studio albums and dozens of deluxe and “extra” editions, Swift’s discography is long and plentiful, and her fans couldn’t be more hooked. So why is she re-releasing her old albums?
Behind the scenes, Swift spent years struggling with owning her own music. Her first six albums were owned by record label Big Machine Records before her contract ended in 2018. When she then switched to Universal Studios’ Republic Records, her owning rights difficulties began.
After she switched labels, Big Machine Records was sold to a private equity firm, Ithaca Holdings, owned by Scooter Braun. Braun then sold her masters to another company, Shamrock Holdings, for $300 million. Since she no longer owned the albums she produced, she publicly denounced Braun’s financial moves and promised to re-record the albums so she could officially own them, rebranding them as “Taylor’s Version.”
This proved to be a major financial gain for Swift, as her most recent net worth estimation is over $780 million. While most of the songs were simply re-mastered and sung with Swift’s older, more mature voice, Swift has also made minor changes to the lyrics on one of her tracks, “Better than Revenge,” a song about a girl stealing a man from Swift.
Initially, the verse was, “She’s an ac- tress, whoa / but she’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress, whoa,” but after Swift was called out for what some considered to be offensive, she changed the lyrics to, “She’s an actress, whoa / he was a moth to the flame she was holding the matches.”
Regardless of lyrical changes, Swift’s fans, “Swifties,” of which she has over 100.8 million monthly on Spotify, were beyond excited over her new albums and the process of re-releasing her albums. They showed their love by the overwhelming support they offered on her ongoing Eras tour and the release of her most recent album, “Midnights,” which highlights Swift’s new sound and attitude toward her music.
