Week 2 post 2: Taylors version

 Since the age of 15, Taylor Swift signed to the Big Machine record label. Through this agreement, big Machine owned the master recordings of her self-titled album, fearless, speak now, red, 1989, and reputation. Now, in 2018 she signed to a new record label that gave her ownership of her future records. Time after time, Big Machine prevented Swift from buying back her master recordings. In 2019 Big Machine offered a deal where if she re-signed with them she could earn an album back at a time for each new one she turned in. She turned this down while Big Machine CEO Scott Borchetta claimed she had been given “every chance in the world” to own her masters. That same year she was blocked from performing old songs at the AMAs and using them in her upcoming documentary. Then, as if the situation could get any worse, Scooter Braun’s company acquired Big Machine and Swift’s masters. Braun already was feuding with Swift because Kanye was a former client of his and he was involved in the production of a song referring to swift as a bitch and a music video that featured a depiction of her naked body. Swift was enraged her musical legacy would belong to someone who tried to dismantle it. 

Swift, being the revolutionary she is, discovered a loophole where if enough time had passed, she would be able to re-record her old music once several years had passed. This trick would never have worked for a smaller artist with a weaker fan base, but because of Swift’s power she knew people would stream her re-records instead of the versions she did not own. She took a stand for an artist’s right to own their own work, and has released re-recorded versions of Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Red (Taylor’s Version), and a few singles from 1989. Along with these releases she included Vault tracks, songs that she had written for the album that Big Machine would not let her include.