Taylor Swift has released her third re-recorded album, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), 13 years after the release of its initial release in 2010.
The album contains new version of the original 16 tracks featured on the 2010 album, alongside new tracks “From the Vault.” The new tracks include features by Fall Out Boy and Paramore’s Hayley Williams. The album is co-produced with Swift’s long-time collaborators, Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff.
“It’s an album I wrote alone about the whims, fantasies, heartaches, dramas, and tragedies I lived out as a young woman between 18 and 20,” Swift wrote in the album’s catalogue.
“I remember making tracklist after tracklist, obsessing over the right way to tell the story. I had to be ruthless with my choices, and I left behind some songs I am still unfailingly proud of now. Therefore, you have 6 From The Vault tracks!”
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is the third re-recorded album by the global pop-star, who in 2019, stated her commitment towards re-recording her first six albums in a bid to own her music.
Why is Taylor Swift re-recording her old music?
In 2019, founder of Swift’s former record label Big Machine Label Group (BMLG), put his company up for sale alongside the music catalog’s of the label’s artists at the time. According to Swift, she repeatedly requested to purchase the right to her master’s multiple times, before finally conceding and leaving Big Machine entirely.
“For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work. Instead I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and “earn” one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in,” wrote Swift on her Tumblr blog.
“I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future. I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past. Music I wrote on my bedroom floor and videos I dreamed up and paid for from the money I earned playing in bars, then clubs, then arenas, then stadiums.”
Ithaca Holdings, a company owned by Scooter Braun, finally bought Big Machine for a whopping $330 million. Swift’s six-album master catalog was individually valued by Braun’s team to be worth around $140 million.
Swift later stated she learned of Braun’s purchase of her masters “as it was announced to the world.” Borchetta refuted the claim, stating he had personally texted her to let her know the day before the announcement.
By November 2020, Braun sold Swift’s first six albums to Shamrock capital for an undisclosed price. Around the same time, Swift announced that Braun would “continue to receive many years of future financial reward from my music masters, music videos, and album artwork.” For this reason, Swift had decided to pursue re-recordings of her first six albums in order to “diminish the value of my old master’s.”
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is now available to stream on all platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music.