Taylor Got Her Way: Swift's rereleases

In 2019, one of pop music’s most popular performers, Taylor Swift, found her first six albums had been sold to a businessman she didn’t like and had a history of unhappy business dealings.

Her solution: record all-new versions of those albums — plus bonus tracks — that would undermine the new owners and would return her own work to herself. She released the first of four “Taylor’s Version” albums on April 9, 2021 — five years ago next Thursday.

Like just about everything else Swift has done, the ploy worked beautifully.

All Of My Enemies Started Out As Friends

Taylor Swift was a 14-year-old country singer and songwriter when she signed a recording contract with Big Machine Records in 2004. Part of the deal was that she’d be allowed to write the songs on her albums. And her father bought a 3% share in the company.

Swift was an immediate success. Her first album spent 157 weeks on the Billboard 200 album chart. Before long, she had become one of the biggest names in music — especially in 2010, when she began incorporating more rock into her music. By her fifth studio album in 2014, she was venturing into synth-pop and dance music.

In 2018, Taylor’s management asked Big Machine to sell the rights to her music back to her. No deal was ever struck. She moved to a new label late that year. But in 2019, Big Machine was acquired for $300 million by someone with whom Swift didn’t get along at all: music producer and talent manager Scooter Braun.

Swift felt misled and cheated. Especially that November, when she was invited to perform at the American Music Awards. Braun and his team denied Swift permission to perform songs from the albums to which he now owned the rights: Her first six studio albums.

“The message being sent to me is very clear,” Swift said. “Basically, be a good little girl and shut up. Or you’ll be punished.”

Swift announced she would rerecord and rerelease her first six albums. She began that project even after Braun sold the rights to her work to Shamrock Holdings, a subsidiary of Disney.

The cover of Swift’s 2008 “Fearless” album and “Taylor’s Version” in 2021.

Look At What You Made Me Do

Braun’s team argued that Swift had been kept informed all along of Big Machine’s intent to sell and his intent to buy. Swift’s lawyer said she had never been given a chance to buy her master tapes back or to buy the label. He told People magazine that Swift learned of the sale when she woke up and saw news articles.

As Swift went public with her plan to rerecord her first six albums, other musicians like Halsey, Cher and Iggy Azalea rushed to social media to voice their support for her.

Swift told “Good Morning America” that her original contract had prevented her from rerecording her own material but that clause would expire in November 2020. “It’s next year,” she said. “It’s right around the corner. I’m going to be busy. I’m really excited.”

Swift started with her second album, “Fearless,” from 2008. It had won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year and Best Country Album. The new version included six unreleased “bonus” tracks — songs she had written in her teen years.

“Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” was Swift’s ninth consecutive album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart. It sold 291,000 units in its first week on the market. She chose not to submit it for Grammy and Country Music Association awards.

In November 2021, Taylor released “Red (Taylor’s Version),” including six previously unreleased songs and special versions of three other songs she had written for other artists. In 2023, she released new versions of “Speak Now” and “1989.”

In May 2025, Swift finally was given the chance to buy back the rights to the master tapes of her first six albums. Two of those six didn’t get the remake treatment.

2010’s “Speak Now” and 2023’s “Taylor’s Version”

2012’s “Red” and 2021’s “Taylor’s Version”

2014’s “1989” and 2023’s “Taylor’s Version”

Two that Swift didn’t get to: 2006’s “Taylor Swift” and 2017’s “Reputation”

Swift's Album Chart History

Two of the 15 No. 1 albums Swift has released were rerecordings.