A stolen music catastrophe
Have you ever seen or listened to a Taylor Swift song, but seen a “(Taylor’s Version)” tag? Well, I’m here to explain why!
Taylor’s old record label (Big Machine Label Group) owned her last 6 albums, not the music, but the master recordings, which is the recording of the song that’s on the radio and album. Artists should own all of their own music! The contract and deal ended in 2018, so Taylor switched to Universal Records. The person who owned them with Big Machine, Scooter Braun, sold them for 300 million dollars to Shamrock Holdings. Any time you stream or buy any of Taylor’s old albums, the profit goes right Scooter Braun and Shamrock Holdings. So, Taylor made a smart move and decided to re-record all of them (since she luckily own her songwriting rights!) and leave the old record label in the past.
She has already re-released her 2008 pop/country album Fearless (Taylor’s Version) along with that she recently re-released her 2012 pop/country album Red (Taylors Version) on November 12th. With each album she releases “vault” songs with some new features. These are unreleased or new songs that were meant to be released on the original album. Whenever you see a song of hers with the tag, (Taylor’s Version), that means she owns that music! Try not to stream the music she doesn’t own if she has already released a new version.
“She should be able to take ownership of the work that she did. She’s the reason that that record label made the money; it’s her money that she earned for them” said Mr. Zach Crutcher, Edison Intermediate School (EIS) math teacher.
Taylor has been mainstream since 2008, and made Big Machine tons of profit and recognition. We asked some students for their opinions, as well. We asked one student if she thought it was a smart move for Taylor to re-record. “It was absolutely a good move to re-record.. Because, again, she can own her own music and she gets more money out of it. So it’s just a smart move,” explained Sarah Weinberg, eighth grader at EIS.
“Re-recording is good for her because she gets profit for what she made, and what she deserves,” declared Lilia Duval, EIS sixth grader.
Taylor re-recording these albums sheds light on other artists struggling in the music industry and gives a little bit of hope to other artists having problems with record labels. Taylor is one of the most influential artists in the industry, so her evolution as an artist should inspire others to do the same.
