Taylor Swift has opened up about the thinking behind her Taylor’s Version re-recording project, recalling the skepticism she faced when she began revisiting music originally released under her former label. Speaking during the GRAMMY Museum’s The Icon Sessions with Taylor Swift: A 20-Year Retrospective, Swift said the process ultimately became an act of reclaiming work she considered hers from the beginning.
“It’s interesting going into that process,” Swift said while discussing the experience of returning to previously released albums. “I re-recorded all of my music that I had recorded on a former label.” She then recalled how the public initially reacted to the idea, saying listeners “kinda side eyed me” in a way she compared to “the way your teacher would” when hearing an unlikely excuse.
That uncertainty became part of what made the project meaningful. Taylor Swift said she initially approached the re-recordings believing that “nobody is gonna wanna hear my new take on these albums,” but the response eventually changed her perspective. After completing the albums, she said the project “got a place of reclamation of things that were mine to begin with.”
The Taylor’s Version campaign began after Swift’s first six albums were tied to Big Machine Records, which owned their original master recordings. Those albums — Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation — represented the first major chapter of her career, but Swift did not control the masters.
That situation became more complicated in 2019, when Big Machine was sold to a company controlled by Scooter Braun, transferring ownership of the recordings. Taylor Swift responded by announcing plans to re-record the albums after signing with Republic Records, allowing her to create new masters that she would own.
The strategy began with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in April 2021 and continued with Red (Taylor’s Version) in November of that year. Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) followed in July 2023, while 1989 (Taylor’s Version) arrived in October 2023. Each release expanded the original albums with previously unreleased From the Vault tracks.
As of 2026, Reputation (Taylor’s Version) and Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version) remain the two unreleased re-recordings from the original six-album plan. Swift’s comments also come after a major development in the ownership story: in 2025, she reached an agreement to purchase the original Big Machine masters, bringing the recordings back under her ownership.
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