Taylor Swift recently announced that she will be rerecording her catalog, beginning with her sophomore album entitled Fearless. By rerecording the albums, her music will become part of her intellectual property. This way, she is able to receive financial compensation for her work and music sales. 

Until her album Lover, none of her music belonged to her because of a change in record labels. According to NPR, Swift’s former record label sold her catalog in a deal for “$300 million”. Scooter Braun now owns all of the royalties to her past work, making her incapable of receiving any of the commission. 

Swift has been extremely vocal about her ongoing issues with her former record label, Big Machine Records, dating back to summer of 2019 with an open letter to Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun. 

According to Billboard, “Swift revealed that in November 2020, her contract allows her to re-record her self-titled debut, 2008’s Fearless, 2010’s Speak Now, 2012’s Red and 2014’s 1989.”

As all of Swift’s past albums have been chart-topping, the question of whether or not the re-recordings will hit listeners the same way is prominent. According to RHS sophomore Ava Burnette, “I think that the fans will probably be the entire audience because everyone else has heard them before.” 

However, Burnette believes that the re-recordings will still attract streams. She states, “I don’t think that the new releases will take away from old albums because, just like with any artist, you have a certain mood when you play an album.” 

Burnette continues, “The re recordings will do well because everyone will stream them like crazy. Spotify will also definitely boost them and put the songs in popular playlists.” 

The re-recorded albums have been talked about by nearly everyone, making Swift’s impact on the music industry known. Swift also has multiple surprises in store. She is including six songs from “The Vault” on her rerelease of Fearless. 

Fearless garnered lots of attention as Swift’s Instagram announcement has accumulated a whopping 4.3 million likes. “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” was released on February 11th and climbed the charts immediately.

The re-recorded version of 2008’s Fearless is set to be released on April 9th, 2021. This will be the first album from Swift’s back catalog to be fully owned by her, allowing her to gain all of the profit and rights to her art. If you’re a lover of music who believes that all artists should own their work, I suggest checking out Fearless (Taylor’s Version) this spring.