Six years after Taylor Swift lost the master rights to her albums with Big Machine Records, the pop megastar finally and fully owns her early catalog as of this May.
However, the development presents a unique situation: Four of the six Big Machine-era albums now have a corresponding Taylor’s Version — nearly identical remakes that allowed Swift to effectively retake the rights to her old songs.
The Taylor’s Version plan worked because the re-recordings became the definitive iterations for her fervent fan base as soon as they dropped. Like clockwork, streams and sales for the original albums nosedived once each Taylor’s Version arrived.
But now that Swift has reclaimed her Big Machine catalog, thereby giving fans the OK to listen to those past recordings guilt-free, will the Taylor’s Version titles be left behind?
Conversely, will fans even care about the old albums now that they’ve been playing the new versions for years? While it’s still early days, Luminate streaming and survey data suggests Swifties are passionate enough to let all incarnations of these albums melodically co-exist.
Looking at weekly U.S. on-demand audio streams (measured Friday-Thursday) shows that every single Big Machine Swift album spiked for May 30 (the day Swift’s buyback was announced) to June 5.
Not surprisingly, the two that haven’t yet received a Taylor’s Version saw some of the biggest streaming gains, namely her 2006 self-titled debut (up 136.4%, from 3.4M to 8.1M) and 2017’s Reputation (from 15.4M to 34.2M, +121.7%).
Streams for the Big Machine releases waned the week ending June 12, though they’re all still above pre-buyback numbers. Reputation was once again Swift’s most-streamed album at 21.1M despite the 38.4% drop from the week prior. The Taylor’s Version albums racked up more streams than their Big Machine counterparts in both weeks, but none of them saw any unusual spikes or dips, either.
So which offering of these albums is the “better” version, at least in terms of streaming performance? It’s unlikely we’ll see a dropoff in streaming for the Taylor’s Version releases like that of the old albums, given they also include unreleased “Vault” tracks and reworked songs that outshined their predecessors in popularity.
Fans now having the ability to pick and choose their favorites (with Swift’s blessing, at least) may ultimately benefit both old and new takes on the albums rather than cause one to dominate the other.
And yet the question remains: Will they ultimately care enough to, say, stream or buy the planned reissues of the Big Machine catalog?
Swifties are some of the most dedicated superfans in all of pop music, and there’s data to prove it: According to Luminate Artist and Genre Tracker data, 86% of Swift devotees who primarily listen to music via streaming services have their favorite artist’s music on repeat (versus 75% of regular music streamers).
Some 88% of Swift music streamers specifically listen to the deep cuts — vs. 83% of regular streamers — while 54% actively follow their favorite artists’ personal lives (vs. 43%). In other words, Swifties are not only eager and willing to stream whatever she releases, they’re particularly invested in her as a person.
Just as most fans accepted the Taylor’s Version albums over the originals as a show of support, they will likely be happy to revisit the old albums to celebrate the singer regaining her masters and ending the tumultuous saga. Click here if you are interested in learning more about Luminate’s music consumption data.
Source:
Luminate Music Consumption Data
Luminate Artist & Genre Tracker
