The music superstar wanted control of her legacy. With ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’ she opens a path to a lucrative new payday.
Taylor Swift has taken control. The 11-time Grammy-Award winning artist dropped the re-recorded version of her 2008 album Fearless at midnight, the first of a string of six revisionist history albums aimed at sticking it to music impresario Scooter Braun—and thrilling the millions of so-called “Swifties” who have rallied behind the #IStandWithTaylor movement. Recreating her catalog also sets Swift up for a potentially massive payday. With a lucrative record deal, a tentative post-pandemic tour and a willingness to resume licensing her songs for use in commercials, film and television, the 31-year old singer is poised to catapult herself into one of the world’s top-earning musicians this year. “I have plenty of surprises in store,” Swift wrote in a statement posted to Twitter in November. “I can’t wait for you to hear what I’ve been dreaming up.” Swift started blocking use of her songs for synchronization after Scott Borchetta, the CEO of her former label Big Machine Records, sold her catalog in a $300 million acquisition of the label to Scooter Braun in June 2019. Blocked from any say in the deal, Swift publicly denounced Braun over the purchase—eventually using her rights as a songwriter to veto any use of the music he acquired, other than the sale, radio play or streaming of it. With today’s release, Swift can resume mining more of her early hits in ad campaigns and commercials as well as films and TV shows.
