After a nearly two-year fight to acquire the master rights to her first six albums, Taylor Swift can finally say to her songs "you belong to me."
The "Bad Blood" singer announced Thursday that she dropping a new rendition of "Love Story," the first of her re-recorded songs, at midnight, just in time for Valentine's Day weekend.
Swift also revealed that “Fearless: Taylor's Version” is finished and “will be with you soon," featuring re-recorded songs from her sophomore album, "Fearless."
The new set will have 26 songs — the original album had 13 — and also contain six never-before released songs, tunes which “almost made” the album.
While Swift didn't provide any details on when fans could expect the new album to be released, hawk-eyed Swifters believe they've cracked a code in her lengthy statement posted to her social media. In her announcement, fans noticed several random capitalized letters that spell out "APRIL NINTH."
“This process has been more fulfilling and emotional than I could’ve imagined and has made me even more determined to re-record all my music,” she wrote.
Swift vowed to re-record the songs from her first six albums after music manager Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings company acquired Big Machine Label Group, the home to Swift’s first six albums. He then sold Big Machine Label Group, and Swift's catalogue, a private equity company called Shamrock Holdings.
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At the time, Swift explained that her team had previously hoped to make a deal with Braun to regain ownership of her masters, but that Braun's side had insisted on her signing an none disclosure agreement to ensure that she would never speak a negative word about the veteran music manager. Because of this, she said, terms of a deal were never discussed.
Swift said she learned her songs were sold for a second time when Shamrock reached out to let her know they purchased all of her songs and album art from Braun's company Ithaca Holdings.
"The letter told me that they wanted to reach out before the sale to let me know, but that Scooter Braun had required that they make no contact with me or my team, or the deal would be off," Swift wrote in a social media post. "As soon as we started communication with Shamrock, I learned that under their terms Scooter Braun will continue to profit off my old musical catalogue for many years. I was hopeful and open to the possibility of a partnership with Shamrock, but Scooter's participation is a non-starter for me."
The Grammy winner, who is currently signed to Republic Records and Universal Music Group, was allowed to begin re-recording on Nov. 1, 2020. These albums include "Taylor Swift" (2006), "Fearless" (2008), "Speak Now" (2010), "Red" (2012), "1989" (2014), and "Reputation" (2017).
“Fearless” was written when Swift was between 16-18 and earned Swift her first Grammy Award. The re-recorded version is likely to be embraced by her fans and push the original recordings lower in searches.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
