Taylor Swift reveals what's next for 'Reputation (Taylor's Version)' after taking back masters
Taylor Swift has revealed the status of her final two re-recorded albums after announcing that she now owns her entire music catalog.
In a letter shared to her official website on Friday, the singer announced that she had bought back all of the master recordings for her first six albums from Shamrock Capital "with no strings attached," thanks to support for her re-recordings, as well as the success of her global Eras Tour.
Swift has been re-recording the albums from her former label, Big Machine Label Group, in order to take ownership of the records that made her a household name. In 2021, she released "Fearless (Taylor's Version)" and "Red (Taylor's Version)," and in 2023, she released "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" and "1989 (Taylor's Version." The last two albums she had left to re-record were "Reputation" and her self-titled debut album.
In her letter on Friday, Swift opened up about "Reputation (Taylor's Version)," writing, "Full transparency: I haven't even re-recorded a quarter of it."
"The Reputation album was so specific to that time in my life, and I kept hitting a stopping point when I tried to remake it," she wrote. "All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposely misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief. To be perfectly honest, it's the one album in those first 6 that I thought couldn't be improved upon by redoing it. Not the music, or photos, or videos. So I kept putting it off."
Swift then assured her fans that if they are open to the idea, there will be a time "for the unreleased vault tracks from that album to hatch."
As for the re-recorded version of her debut album, Swift said that she has "already re-recorded" it in its entirety, writing, "I really love how it sounds now."
"Those 2 albums can still have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right, if that would be something you guys would be excited about," she wrote. "But if it happens, it won't be from a place of sadness and longing for what I wish I could have. It will just be a celebration now."
Swift's debut album, "Taylor Swift," was released in 2006 and features the hit songs "Teardrops On My Guitar," "Tim McGraw," "Picture to Burn" and "Our Song."
Swift released "Reputation" on Nov. 10, 2017. It was her sixth studio album and was nominated for best pop vocal album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards in 2019.
Prior to its release, Swift teased the album in an August 2017 Instagram post, writing, "There will be no further explanation. There will just be reputation." Songs featured on the album include "Look What You Made Me Do," "...Ready For It," "Don't Blame Me" and "Delicate."
Fans got a taste of "Reputation (Taylor's Version)" in 2023 with the release of the official teaser trailer for the Prime Video thriller series "Wilderness," which featured a version of Swift's song "Look What You Made Me Do." Prime Video confirmed in a press release at the time that the track was titled "Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor's Version)."
Recently, "Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor's Version)" was also featured in an episode of "The Handmaid's Tale" for the show's final season.
In March 2023, Swift embarked on her historic Eras Tour. The tour grossed more than $2 billion in ticket sales and brought in more than 10 million in attendance, according to Taylor Swift Touring.
It also spawned the massively successful concert film "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour." The documentary earned more than $261 million at the worldwide box office, according to The Numbers, making it the highest-grossing concert film of all time, per Guinness World Records, and even earning a Golden Globe nomination for cinematic and box office achievement.
The tour wrapped in December 2024 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
