Artist Taylor Swift has officially regained ownership of her masters, meaning she once again has the full rights to all her original music. Now the question of whether or not she will release her final two "Taylor's Version" re-recordings is up in the air.
"All I’ve ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to one day purchase my music outright with no strings attached," Swift wrote in a letter to fans released on Friday.
She has achieved that goal -- and has also admitted that the re-recorded versions of Reputation and Taylor Swift aren't yet a definite guarantee.
"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 explained, clarifying that she hasn't even recorded half of it yet. She has finished re-recording Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version), though, and at the moment, we might eventually see both "if that would be something you guys would be excited about."
It's impossible to say whether or not we'll actually get re-recorded "Taylor's Versions" of this music, or if we'll just get some sort of special celebration of the new "original" versions of these albums that she now owns outright. But I've read the letter in full, and if I were to put my editor hat on in doing so at this moment, I'd say the tone of her message really comes down to a simple, "I don't know. I guess we'll see."
The reality is that Taylor Swift technically doesn't have to do anything Taylor Swift doesn't want to do. So if she ultimately decides she doesn't want to re-record or release Reputation, chances are high that she probably won't. The incentive that started this re-recording project -- the goal to own all of her music -- has now vanished. And as she says in the letter, if we do ever get these final installments, it will be because she wants to do it. And at least as of today, it seems like she really isn't sold on the idea.
And can you really blame her? As much as Swift seems to genuinely enjoy making music and performing, she has spent the last few years tumbling through the global news cycle nearly every single day. Her last original album, The Tortured Poets Department, didn't get nearly the amount of praise or awards as her past work. Despite the monumental success of The Eras Tour, I can't imagine she currently finds the idea of once again forcing herself directly into the spotlight more than necessary particularly appealing.
It wouldn't surprise me if we continued to go years without these final re-recordings, or even a new album at all. Even as a huge Swiftie, I don't mind all that much. It would be easy to critique this choice viewing Taylor Swift as an entity rather than as a human being, but I'm drawn toward the latter. This isn't to say that Taylor Swift will stop making music. But it's not impossible to imagine she might just want a minute to breathe.
Of course, I don't know Taylor Swift personally, and these are all inferred assumptions based on my own perception of an artist I genuinely admire creatively. I'm probably very wrong about all of it, and that's okay. I can live with being wrong if it means some of Swift's more vocal fans consider stopping for a moment to think before complaining about this on the internet.