Fans of Taylor Swift have looked forward to the release of Red (Taylor’s Version) on November 12th since it was announced. So far, each release of a re-recorded album has brought new tracks that were never released before and features such as a 10-minute version of the fan-favorite All Too Well and a short film to accompany it. However, behind the re-recordings of Swift’s albums is a startling business decision and a moral dilemma for listeners. Fans should stop listening to Taylor Swift’s older albums, or at least consider options other than streaming them. 

Swift signed with her first label, Big Machine Records, in 2005, long before her fame skyrocketed and even before she had released her first album, at the young age of 15. She stayed with that label through the releases of her first six studio albums (Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation). However, Big Machine Records was sold to private-equity group Ithaca Holdings in 2019, which was owned by music manager Scooter Braun, enabling him to have ownership of Swift’s music. He then sold the rights to all of Taylor Swift’s albums up to Reputation to another private-equity group, Shamrock Holdings, for $300 million. This occurred without Swift’s knowledge, and she ended up learning about the transaction at the same time as the public did. 

Although Swift has continued to make money from her older work through a certain percentage of the royalties from her older albums, the man who sold her masters without her knowledge is profiting from them at the same time. Under the terms of his agreement with Shamrock Holding’s, Braun is set to make considerable sums of money off of Swift’s albums for years to come. 

Swift’s response has been revolutionary in the music industry; she has chosen to re-record all of her past music to regain ownership of it, which is something no artist has ever done before. This is highly exciting, particularly since she is releasing songs from her “From the Vault” collection (these are songs that were written years ago but did not make it into her original studio). However, listeners have realized that when they listen to her older albums, which are just as beloved as her newer ones, they are contributing to Scooter Braun’s profits and effectively helping him make more money through Taylor Swift. 

The entire purpose of Swift re-recording her albums is that she wants to own them herself, as well as decrease the value of her old albums so Braun will make less money from them. As counterintuitive as it may seem, fans need to stop streaming her older music, as they are going against her goal and helping Braun make more money. The best option is to stop listening to these albums entirely, as fans will have the chance to listen to the music itself again once the albums are rerecorded by Swift. However, many fans are understandably hesitant to do this, so the next best option is to download or purchase the music so that Braun makes money from that one-time purchase instead of from constantly streaming the music.