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It was one of the most ambitious musical projects of all time. And at the same time one of the most relentless and most successful. Taylor Swifts decision to re -record your back catalog after Scooter Brauns Ithaca Holdings the rights had acquired her first six albums when it Swift’s old record company Big Machine bought.
Start of the project 2021 with re-releases from “Fearless” and “Red”
Swift A few months after the deal between Ithaca and Big Machine began in 2019 to announce this project. But it was not until 2021 that she officially started the campaign “Taylor’s version“. She published newly recorded versions of four albums. Starting with Fearless and Redfollowed by Speak Now and 1989. In addition to the complete revision of the original albums, Swift also published new versions of previously unpublished songs. Among them, above all, a 10-minute version of your masterpiece “All Too Well”.
Publication of all four albums in 1st place on the Billboard charts
The logic behind the “Taylor’s version” campaign was bitter clarity. The new admissions would enable her to regain some control over her music, while at the same time they would water down the value of the original recordings. Swift’s fans, faithful as always, welcomed every publication with the enthusiasm typical of them. And all four “Taylor’s version” albums landed in first place on the billboard album charts.
On Friday, May 30th, Swift announced that they finally the right had bought back on their first six albums from Shamrock Holdings (which had acquired the 2020 catalog from Ithaca). The conditions of the agreement have not been announced. But Swift wrote in a letter that she was buying thanks to the enormous success of the Eras Tour and the “passionate support” of her fans for the new admissions.
The numbers show the remarkable success of the “Taylor’s version” albums. According to data from Luminate, all four albums have been streamed in the United States at least two billion times by May 22nd. Fearless and Speak Now achieved 2.7 billion or 2.1 billion streams. Red Came 7.5 billion streams. And 1989 led the list of all four albums with astonishing 8.2 billion streams.
10-minute “All Too Well” reaches number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100
Each new publication also produced several successful singles. New versions of old hits such as “Love Story”, “Wildest Dreams”, “Style” and “State of Grace” came back to the top 20. None of these newly recorded songs achieved quite as high chart placements as the originals. So “Love Story” reached fourth place, while the TV version landed in eleventh place. But Swift’s new recording of her favorite song “Enchanted” from “Speak Now” made it much higher in the Hot 100 (19th place) than the original (75th place).
It is not surprising that Swift celebrated the greatest success in the single charts with the “From The Vault” tracks. Her 10-minute version of “All Too Well” out of Red (Taylor’s version) made it to number 1 in the 100th place and became a Longest chart striker any times. Meanwhile brought Speak Now (Taylor’s version) the hit “I can see you” out. The 5th place reached. While 1989 (Taylor’s version) several Contained top 10 hits. “Is it over now?” (also number 1), “Now that we don’t talk”, “Suburban Legends” And “Slut!”.
Many of Swift’s cooperations from the archive were also successful. “I Bet You Think About Me” with Chris Stapleton reached 22nd place. “You all over me “ With Maren Morris place 51. And “Nothing New” with Phoebe Bridgers place 43.
Original albums vs. Taylor’s version in direct comparison
Nevertheless, the enormous popularity of Swift and the enormous effect of its first six albums meant that it would be difficult for every new recording to achieve the success of the original albums. Or to exceed. The only album succeeded in this feat was “1989“. From that “Taylor’s version“More than 1.3 million times were sold in the first week. And thus the 1.28 million copies of the original In the first week briefly exceeded. (Ironically, the announcement of the new recording of “1989“To ensure that the streams of the Original albums doubled. Simply because the fans searched for the LP.)
In the context of the project “Taylor’s version“However, the four new publications have almost certainly achieved their primary goal. To entertain the fans. And to inspire them even more than the four years in which Swift two completely new albums -“ “Midnights ” and “The Tortured Poets Department “ – published. And also on a world tour. Above all, they have distracted the listeners from the original recordings that did not belong to them.
1.3 million sales in week one exceed original
Luminate data show that the “Taylor’s version” albums were a huge success in this regard. In the time between the publication of every “TV” album and May 22nd, only one original album exceeded the new admissions. “Fearless”, which achieved surprisingly impressive four billion streams. Compared to 2.7 billion for “Taylor’s version”. The original album “Speak Now” was streamed two billion times. And was just below the result of “Taylor’s version” with 2.1 billion streams.
As for “Red” and “1989”, the “TVs” were much more successful than the originals. After the publication of “Red (Taylor’s version)” at the end of 2021, it was streamed 7.5 billion times. While the original only achieved 3.7 billion streams. And after the publication of “1989 (Taylor’s version)” in October 2023 it was streamed 8.2 billion times. While the original comparatively meager scored three billion streams.