What is Taylor's Version?

1989 (Taylor’s Version), Taylor Swift's 14th album, came out October 27th. You might be asking yourself, didn’t Taylor Swift already come out with an album called 1989? The answer to that question would be yes!

Now what is the difference between the two? 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (or TV) will feature the same 13 regular tracks and 3 deluxe tracks that were on the original 1989 plus 5 vault songs. Vault songs are songs that were originally written to be on the first album but didnt make it. Taylor’s Version not only features new songs but it is also Taylor Swift's way of taking back her music. 

Taylor Swift was signed with Big Machine Records in 2005 but was very limited by her management on what she could do with her music and money. In 2018 she left Big Machine Records and signed with Universal Music and Republic Records. Everything was fine until 2020 when Taylor’s masters (the official recordings of all of her music) were unknowingly sold to Ithaca Holdings which is a music management company controlled by Scooter Braun. Braun then proceeded to sell Taylor’s music for $300 million. Taylor was never given the opportunity to buy her music back and wasn’t even aware of the sale until it went public. All of this means that Taylor makes no money on any of her albums from 2006-2018. 

Although, since Taylor owns the copyright to these songs she is able to re-record these “stolen” albums and make money off of them again. Streaming Taylor’s Version is so important because the money made off of that stream goes to Taylor and not Scooter and the companies that stole her music. 1989 TV is the 5th re-recorded album, the most recent before this being Speak Now TV which dropped July 7th 2023. Now comes the waiting game as to when she will drop the next re-recorded album and whether it will be her Debut album or Reputation...