This dates back several years when superstar Taylor Swift was in a very public fight with Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun. When Borchetta sold Big Machine to Braun, Swift’s master recordings were also boxed up as part of the deal. Swift despises Braun.
The sale gave Braun ownership of all of Swift’s master recordings before 2019. And the way the business works is that meant any time someone wanted to license one of the songs off Swift’s first 6 albums, Braun would profit. She didn’t like that.
A major he-said she-said public kerfuffle broke out and Swift vowed to re-record all of those albums and release them herself.
Which is what she’s now doing.
iHeartMedia Chief programming office Tom Poleman wrote a piece this week that stated whenever Swift re-records a new song, iHeart immediately replaces the old version with her new version. “Our stations will always deliver songs that artists are eager to share and fans want to hear. 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.”
When the new songs are released, anyone who wants to license them must now go through Swift, not Braun.
