It looks as if Taylor Swift isn’t one for taking time off. After releasing the critically acclaimed Midnights in October last year, her tenth album, Taylor may be giving fans another album sooner than you think. With the gradual re-release of her previous albums, fans are now wondering if Taylor Swift is re-recording Speak Now, creating Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).
Taylor Swift has been on a mission to re-record her first six albums, beginning with Fearless in early 2021. Since then, she’s gone on to release Red (Taylor’s Version), taking some time off to promote and release her tenth album, Midnights. Now that it’s been released and pleased fans and critics alike, fans wonder if Taylor will re-record Speak Now.
Why Is Taylor Swift Re-Recording Her Albums?
Taylor is re-recording her albums so that she owns them and therefore can profit from them.
The singer-songwriter first signed a recording contract in 2005 with Big Machine Records. According to ITV, when signing the deal, she gave the record company rights to her first six albums, from Taylor Swift to Reputation. BMR owned the master copy of the songs on those albums. So, they would profit from any streaming platforms and CD sales.
In 2018, Taylor signed a new deal with Universal Music Group. This meant that Taylor owned the master copy of any subsequent releases. In the following year, Scott Braun bought Big Machine Records. Unfortunately, this then meant that he owned the master copies of her first six albums. Taylor then took to Tumblr with a lengthy post about her unhappy she was with this arrangement.
“This is my worst-case scenario. This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says ‘Music has value’, he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it.”
Taylor took to Twitter to confirm that she had tried to buy her old albums. However, but she was unsatisfied with the purchasing conditions.
The singer then decided she would re-record these six albums so that she could make money from their streams and physical album sales.
Is Taylor Swift Re-Releasing Speak Now?
Speak Now was recorded with Big Machine Record. Therefore, it is one of Taylor’s albums that the singer would need to re-record. If she creates Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), then she can make money from it.
The Sun reports that Speak Now, her third album, will be released in the coming months. A source told the paper that:
“Taylor has quietly been in the studio working on remaking both Speak Now and 1989. All details are still being ironed out but Speak Now Taylor’s Version should be out within the next couple of months before she kicks off her Eras world tour.”
Many fans believed that Speak Now would be the next Taylor Swift album to be re-recorded. This was due to easter eggs in her videos for Bejeweled hinting at the release.
It’s not certain in what order the singer is releasing her older albums (Taylor’s Version) in. She began with her second album, Fearless, before re-releasing Red, her fourth album, later the same year. Speak Now was originally released in 2010 and would only leave her first self-titled album, 1989 and Reputation left.
Hopefully, this means that Speak Now Taylor’s Version will be released a lot sooner than fans might have thought. With some classics such as Sparks Fly and The Story of Us on her third album, we can’t wait to stream Taylor’s Version.
