iHeartMedia replacing Taylor Swift’s original recordings with newly recorded versions

Swift has released two re-recorded albums so far

iHeartMedia has pledged it will replace Taylor Swift’s original Big Machine recordings with the re-recorded “Taylor’s Version” as they become available via Republic Records. The media giant shared the news on its website this week, stating listeners will only hear the updated editions on its airwaves.

“Whenever Taylor re-records a new track, we immediately replace the old versions. Our stations will always deliver songs that artists are eager to share and fans want to hear,” shares Tom Poleman, Chief Programming Officer for iHeartMedia. “Listeners have made it known that they cannot wait to hear Taylor’s Version of each track. We are thrilled to provide a platform to share those with them, as well as the stories behind the songs from Taylor herself.”

Swift is currently in the midst of releasing re-recorded versions of her first six studio albums following a public feud with her former label, Big Machine Label Group. Her original masters were part of the sale of Big Machine in 2019 when Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings LLC purchased the label. Braun then sold Swift’s Big Machine catalog masters to Shamrock Holdings for upwards of $300 million in 2019.  Swift has been at odds with the label, founder Scott Borchetta and Braun over the past couple of years as she’s attempted to purchase the masters to no avail while also being caught up in live performing rights of the same songs. Even though neither Braun nor Borchetta no longer possesses ownership of those master recordings, Swift still decided to re-recorded them in an effort to own all of her masters.

Over the last two years, Swift has been hard at work re-recording her first six albums — from her 2006 self-titled debut through 2017’s Reputation. The superstar has already shared Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version), as well as a newly recorded version of “Wildest Dreams” from her 1989 album which has yet to be announced. Taylor Swift, Speak Now, 1989 and Reputation are left to be released.

Swift is also supplementing the recordings with “From the Vault” songs that were written during each album’s era but left off their original counterpart. Many of those tracks are reimagined with some as collaborations with Maren Morris, Chris Stapleton, Keith Urban and others, and often double the original track listing.

Swift has broken many records with the re-recordings. With the release of Red (Taylor’s Version) on November 12th, Swift broke two Spotify single-day streaming records for the most-streamed album in a day by a female and the most-streamed female in a single day in Spotify history.

Upon Fearless (Taylor’s Version) earlier this year, Swift broke records when it landed at No. 1 around the world, marking the first time a woman has landed three No. 1 albums in less than a year with the releases of Folklore and Evermore both released last year.

With the arrival of Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Swift extended an unprecedented record, standing out as the only artist in history to release nine albums with sales of at least 500,000 copies in a single week [Fearless, Speak Now, RED, 1989, Reputation, Lover, Folklore, Evermore, and now, Fearless (Taylor’s Version)].

Swift has broken a 54 year record held by The Beatles in the United Kingdom for the fastest accumulation of three No. 1 albums. Swift captured her third chart-topping album in a span of 259 days with Fearless (Taylor’s Version), which follows Folklore on July 31st and Evermore on December 18th.

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com