Written by Kristina Calhoun
Taylor Swift fans will be excited to hear that their throwback songs will soon have a new tune to them.
Swift announced in her acceptance speech at the AMAs that she will be rerecording her older material to “regain artistic and financial control.” The decision comes after her old record label, Big Machine Records, sold her material in a reported $300 million deal to another record label that she had had prior problems with.
Since Swift did not own her material, she could not go after the label for doing so. She was not given an opportunity to buy her material or even have a say in what happened to it. Swift was very upset. “Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, and I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy,” she said.
Good news came shortly after when her contract specified that in November 2020, she could record albums one through five again. Those albums include “Taylor Swift,” “Fearless,” “Speak Now,” “Red” and “1989.”
Since her newest record, “Reputation,” was recorded under Big Machine Records, Taylor cannot rerecord it yet. According to the Rolling Stone, this is likely due to a common clause in contracts. The contract states that songs cannot be rerecorded until “the later of two years following the expiration of the agreement or five years after the commercial release.” In the case of “Reputation,” that means Swift unfortunately cannot rerecord the album until 2022.
What are the implications of Swift’s decision? After rerecording, she will have the freedom to do what she wants with her music — if she wants it to be used in an ad or a movie, for example, she can give permission for it to be used. This is exciting news, especially considering that Swift has been blocked in the past from performing her old songs at the AMAs. When Swift fired back with a post explaining the situation, Big Machine ultimately allowed Swift to perform her old songs at the AMAs following the publication of the post.
Fans were so excited upon hearing the news that before long #TAYLORISFREE was trending on Twitter. The fact that Swift now has the freedom she has is just one more step forward for females in the music industry.
