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Taylor Swift reveals new version of Love Story in advert

By | Published on Thursday 3 December 2020

Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift has said that she is re-recording her old songs so that fans can listen to them without feeling guilty about giving any money to big bad Scooter Braun. So where has the first of those re-recorded tracks been made available? That’s right, in an advert.

The new version of 2008 song ‘Love Story’ appears in a new advert for Match.com that’s been directed by actor Ryan Reynolds. Tweeting about the ad, Swift says: “OK, so while my new re-records are NOT done, my friend [Ryan Reynolds] asked me if he could use a snippet of one for a LOLsome commercial he wrote. So here’s a sneak peak of ‘Love Story’! Working hard to get the music to you soon!”

Swift, of course, began re-recording her old music after her former label Big Machine was acquired – along with her master recording rights – by Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings company. This, she said at the time, was her “worst case scenario”, due to Braun’s history – she claims – of bullying her. As contractural restrictions on re-recording the Big Machine-owned recordings began to lapse, she set to work making new versions, which she plans to release in the near future.

Last month it was announced that her master rights had been sold again, to private equity firm Shamrock Holdings. However, when it emerged that Braun would continue to profit from the recordings under that deal, she said that she would continue as planned with re-recording the old songs.

“I simply cannot in good conscience bring myself to be involved in benefitting Scooter Braun’s interests directly or indirectly”, she wrote in a letter to Shamrock. “I will be going forward with my original re-recording schedule and will be embarking on that effort soon”.

“I know this will diminish the value of my old masters”, she added, “but I hope you will understand that this is my only way of regaining the sense of pride I once had when hearing songs from my first six albums and allowing my fans to listen to those albums without feelings of guilt for supporting Scooter”.

Since Ithaca acquired Big Machine, Swift has also been blocking requests from TV, film and advertising companies that want to sync tracks from her early albums through her veto on the publishing side.

It therefore seemed likely that another key reason for re-recording the older songs was to attempt to convince such companies to use the new recordings that she will own outright. The fact that the first taste of these new recordings has arrived in an advert suggests that this is indeed the case.

In a recent interview with ‘Good Morning America’, Swift talked up the improvements she was making to the songs with her new recordings, particularly ‘Love Story’.

“So far, of the ones I’ve recorded”, she said, “I think it’s been the most fun doing ‘Love Story’, because the older music, my voice was so teenaged and I sometimes, when I hear my older music and my young teenage voice, it makes me feel like I’m a different singer now”.

Anyway, it’s not clear when we’ll hear any more new/old music from Swift, but you can watch this advert here:



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