Swifties may not get the long-awaited Taylor’s Version of “Reputation” after all.
Now that Taylor Swift has bought back rights to the master recordings of her earlier albums, her project to re-record them — in order to keep the suits previously in possession of the masters from profiting — is rendered kind of moot.
Swift was also in no rush to finish re-recording the 2017 album’s songs, as they were inspired by her relationship with ex Joe Alwyn – whom she dated from 2016 to 2023, a source close to the singer told Page Six.
“It was about not going back to songs that were written all about falling in love with Joe,” the source said of “Reputation.
“She cannot access that headspace now — cannot and does not want to … ‘Delicate’ and ‘Call It What You Want’ and ‘New Year’s Day’— tracks like that? Not a chance.”
Indeed, after Page Six was first to report the “Trouble” singer had a chance to buy back her music, on May 30, Swift confirmed in a heartfelt letter to fans she had indeed purchased her entire music catalog, which includes her music videos, concert films, album art, photography and unreleased songs as well as the recordings of the tracks themselves.
Swift purchased the package for a reported $360 million from Shamrock Capital, the private equity firm who had, in turn, purchased them from Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings in late 2020.
“All of the music I’ve ever made … now belongs… to me,” she wrote in a heartfelt note formatted as a handwritten letter posted to her website on May 30.
Swift also revealed she “hasn’t re-recorded a quarter” of “Reputation” yet, writing, “The Reputation album was specific to that time in my life, and I kept hitting a stopping point when I tried to remake it.”
“All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposely misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief.”
But the source told Page Six Swift “really, really did not want to re-record it. And despite what she said in her statement, it had nothing to do with not wanting to go back to a place of ‘snarl and mischief.’”
“In fact,” the source added, “the only songs she re-recorded were the ‘snarl and mischief’ ones— she did ‘Ready for It’ and possibly ‘Getaway Car’ and I’m pretty sure, ‘I Did Something Bad.’”
As for the love songs, though, “She just wasn’t feeling it — at all.”
Instead, the source predicted: “I wouldn’t be surprised if the ‘Reputation’ vault tracks — because she would like to put those out there — come out as part of a Deluxe Remastered Reputation for the [10th] anniversary of that album… in 2027.”
Swift has moved on from Alwyn with her high-profile relationship with Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce, whom she is hotly rumored to be getting engaged to any day now.
A rep for Swift chose not to comment for this story.
Swift also said in her recent statement she has “completely re-recorded” her self-titled 2006 debut, saying, “I really love how it sounds now.”
The source said her 19-year-old debut, “hit a different wall [to “Reputation”] — there is just no way to sound like she did back then.
The end result “intentionally sounds different … and she was really unsure how that would go over as a ‘Taylor’s Version’ album,” the source said.
“Now the thinking is maybe she’ll put that out on the 20th anniversary [next year] as a tribute to the original.”
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