Taylor Swift has consistently been at the forefront of celebrity news since the release of her first studio album in 2006. She quickly rose to fame, and her fan base has grown to over 300 million people across multiple social media platforms. She is constantly growing not only in fame but also as an influential individual, especially with her fight against Big Machine records for the ownership of her first six studio albums.
In 2006 when “Taylor Swift” was released, Swift shot to fame with various awards and nominations from the CMAs, the Grammys, and others. At the onset of her career, she signed with Big Machine Records, which at the time seemed like an amazing opportunity. However, Swift ultimately had to sign away the ownership of the masters (the underlying rights of songs) of her first six albums to the producing company.
When it came to Taylor Swift winning the Artist of the Decade for the 2020 American Music Awards, Big Machine Records prevented her from singing specific songs during her award night performance. Big Machine Records had the rights to dictate where songs could be used, including performances. Taylor Swift publicly called the record label out, and she made gaining the rights to her masters a priority.
Big Machine Records continued to be difficult when Taylor Swift asked to purchase the masters. The record label only offered for her to “earn” one album at a time with each new album she signed away to them, along with an underlying threat that Big Machine Records would sell the company with Swift’s masters included. Rather than risking losing her independence as an artist to another record label, she announced that she would be re-recording her first six albums and signing with Universal Music Groups for her future albums.
The new team that Swift officially joined in 2018 formed a contract that allows Swift to have the ownership of her own masters for her newly produced songs. Her album “Lover”, released in 2019, was the first album that she had all of the rights to. As soon as Swift had the security of a moral and trustworthy record label, she began her work re-recording her first six albums. She started with her second studio album Fearless, arguably the most popular album of hers to date. She released Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in April 2021, along with “From the Vault” singles that never made the original album. The compiled album had a total of 27 tracks, compared to only 13 in the original album. “Mr. Perfectly Fine (From the Vault)” became the most popular song of the album, along with original hits like “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)”.
The “Swifties” have collectively made the promise to only listen to Taylor’s Version of a song if it exists. This especially became evident when Swift released “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)” after the original song became a trending sound on Tiktok. Many fans used the platform as a voice for Taylor Swift, encouraging all people to support Swift’s individuality and independence as a female artist. As for her future, Taylor Swift has plans to release the re-recorded Red album on Nov. 12 along with the albums Speak Now, 1989, and Reputation in later months. She wants the world to hear her story of coming to be as successful and independent in the music business as she is now. The strength Swift has had throughout this battle shows her determination for justice, not only for herself, but also for the other artists who are dealing with the unfairness of the music industry.