REVISITING THE
RE-RECORD (UPDATE)

In a brief interview with Robin Roberts prior to her performance on ABC’s GMA this morning, Taylor Swift said she intends to re-record her first five albums—and that her contract allows her to do that beginning in November 2020.

Swift said her contract allows her to “re-record albums one through five,” adding “it’s something I’m passionate about. I think artists deserve to own their work. I feel passionately about that.”

The clickbait industry was firing on all cylinders Wednesday after CBS released a partial transcript of Taylor Swift's interview with CBS Sunday Morning (airing 8/25) suggested she was considering re-recording her catalog. Actually, this is the verbatim exchange with the show's Tracy Smith:

“Might you do that?” Smith asks.
“Oh yeah,” Swift says.
“That’s a plan?” Smith asks.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Swift says.

You'll note that in her sphinx-like replies, Swift doesn't put a time frame on this "plan." There was almost certainly a re-record clause in her prior deal with Big Machine, and when Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings did the $300m deal to merge with the Borchetta empire, they most certainly factored the term of that clause into the process.

Of course, the story does guarantee heavy-breathing headlines just ahead of Tay's album drop, and should goose ratings for the actual broadcast.

So Tay may well have a plan to do this, but don't hold your breath for a re-recorded catalog in the very near future. The same goes for several of our plans, including cleaning off our desks, not drinking before lunch and finally booking that trip to Paraguay.