On October 27, the highly anticipated 1989 (Taylor’s Version) was released. The album put up unbelievable numbers on its’ opening day, breaking the most streamed album of the year on Spotify, and the most streamed artist in a single day. Swift also beat her own record, originally set in 2022 during her release of Midnights, as the most streamed artist during the first 24 hours of an album release, as well as many songs going #1 both domestically and internationally. 

For those of you who are confused as to why Taylor is re-releasing her albums in the first place, here is the explanation: Essentially, since the beginning of her career, Taylor has been signed to Big Machine Records. In mid 2018, she announced that after a 13 year partnership, she would be stepping away from the label for a new beginning.

In the wake of that announcement, record executive Scott Borchetta sold all of Taylor’s music up to that point to Scooter Braun for upwards of 300 million dollars. Since then, a lot of drama has unfolded, between not letting Taylor perform old music, not giving her the rights to her self written music, and a whole bunch of other squabbles.

Finally, in 2020, Swift announced that she had the right to re-record her first 6 albums owned by Big Machine, and she would be doing just that under the new record label Republic Records, in an effort to regain ownership of her work. The distinction between the albums she owns, and the Big Machine masters, would be “(Taylor’s Version)”, leading us to where we are right now.

Swift claims that she didn’t think the rerecords would be that big of a hit, but if anybody knows the power of the Swifties, this was always going to be well-received, even if it’s the same music she previously released. However, there is a slight caveat to this. In addition to the albums themselves, there will be new songs, known as “vault tracks,” that were written during the time of a specific album release, but, for whatever reason, didn’t make the cut on the original album. Adding this aspect, makes the releases that much more exciting, since fans get to hear new music along with dearly beloved songs remade in a new light.

Since this announcement of doing the re-recordings, she has released 4 thus far: Fearless (TV), on April 9, 2021, Red (TV) on November 19, 2021, Speak Now (TV) earlier this year, on July 7, 2023, and finally now 1989 (TV). 

1989 (Taylor’s Version) has 21 songs, 16 previously released songs, 5 vault tracks, and a deluxe version with 22 songs. In its first week, the album is projected to make 1.45 million dollars in sales, with 1.55 million units sold. If these stats come true it would be Swift’s biggest re-recording yet, and would be sure to hold the number one spot on the Billboard Charts. That would be Taylor’s 13th album going number one. 

Additionally, this album release comes after the highly successful Eras Tour, and the Eras Tour movie. The tour, after it is all done, is expected to make 4.1 billion dollars, making it the highest grossing solo tour of all time. Adding in the profits from the Eras movie (a recording of the concert), overall Swift will generate an estimated 5.7 billion dollars. 

It is safe to say that Taylor Swift is at the height of her career, and she only seems to be getting better with time. People all over the world cannot wait to see what she does next, and how many more records she will break.