Taylor Swift has re-recorded a version of her hit song “Love Story” and licensed it to Match for a new ad that will star Ryan Reynolds. This is the first instance of Taylor releasing one of the re-recorded versions of an old tune.
From Swift’s Twitter: “OK, so while my new re-records are NOT done, my friend @VancityReynolds asked me if he could use a snippet of one for a LOLsome commercial he wrote.”
Taylor told fans that she would be re-recording her first six albums back in August 2019, after news broke about the multi-million-dollar acquisition of her original masters by Scooter Braun.
Braun took ownership of Swift’s original recordings when his company Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine Label Group, the record label that released every Swift album from her first self titled release all the way through 2017’s Reputation. Braun told variety magazine last month that he sold the Swift catalog to Shamrock Holdings, a private equity company, as part of a package deal said to be worth $300 million.
Since the buyout in summer 2019, Swift has repeatedly railed against both Braun and Scott Borchetta, the founder of Big Machine who originally signed her to the label. Although Swift has conceded that Big Machine did give her the opportunity to buy back her masters, it was under the condition that she sign back to BM rather than migrate to her new label, Republic, which she refused.
The BM deal would have also required her to turn in a new album in order to receive an original album master back, meaning she would have had to produce six additional albums for BM in order to regain full ownership of her music.
