Taylor Swift looks set to enter the recording studio soon, hatching a plan to re-record her old tracks as a way to spite Scooter Braun after he gained control of her masters.
Early last month, the world of music woke up to news that Taylor Swift and music entrepreneur Scooter Braun were at war over a new acquisition deal which saw the manager gain control of Swift’s music.
Braun’s Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine Records – the label Taylor Swift released all of her albums on up until 2019 – for $300 million, effectively meaning that the rights to all of Swift’s music are now under his control.
Swift described the situation as a “worst case scenario” on Tumblr, claiming that Braun was responsible for “incessant, manipulative bullying” over the years.
“I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world,” Swift explained.
“Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”
Check out ‘You Need To Calm Down’ by Taylor Swift:
While musicians soon found themselves taking sides in this rather sticky situation, Kelly Clarkson took to Twitter to share her own ideas about how Taylor Swift should handle the situation.
“U should go in & re-record all the songs that U don’t own the masters on exactly how U did them but put brand new art & some kind of incentive so fans will no longer buy the old versions,” Clarkson tweeted. “I’d buy all of the new versions just to prove a point.”
Now, it appears as though this plan will indeed be going ahead at some time in the near future, with Swift confirming her decision in a new interview.
As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Taylor Swift spoke to Tracy Smith of CBS Sunday Morning recently, speaking at length about a number of topics, including her new album, and the controversial acquisition.
When asked by Smith whether the future held a trip to the recording studio to revisit all of her old tracks, Swift was definite in her response. “Oh yeah,” she said, “Yeah, absolutely.”
While Taylor Swift is set to release her latest album, Lover, on Friday, the artist has also sparked a bit of confusion amongst fans, after it was reported the record’s lead single has been edited to remove a controversial line.
Following the premiere of ‘ME!’ back in April, some critics took issue with the inclusion of the line “Hey kids, spelling is fun!”, with citing the line as giving the tune something of a childlike atmosphere.
As Rolling Stone notes though, streaming versions of the track no longer feature the line, indicating that the backlash may indeed sparked a conversation about the song’s content.
Check out ‘ME!’ by Taylor Swift:
