A Guide to Rerecording One's Music: A Taylor Swift Case Study

Abstract

In 2019, Taylor Swift entered a public feud with her former label, Big Machine Records, over the sale of her first six albums without her say. In 2021, Swift began to rerecord her first six albums, starting with Fearless (Taylor’s Version), and rerelease these albums with new artwork, additional songs, and updated production. Since then, she has rerecorded and released four of these (Taylor’s Version)s to fantastic critical reception and unprecedented success. The reason Swift is the first artist to rerecord with such success is because of three factors: her marketing prowess, her fanbase of Swifties, and her timing. Not only has Swift given other artists a cautionary tale to recall when signing their first contracts—Taylor Swift has provided a blueprint for other artists looking to take control of their work, while also creating something so grand that it has altered the way the music industry operates.