Music labels take steps to prevent artists from replicating Taylor Swift's re-recording success

Published November 9, 2023 at 6:52 AM MST

Taylor Swift performs during The Eras Tour. (Chris Pizzello/AP)

We’re living in a season of Swift. Taylor Swift, that is. The popstar, who has a legion of millions of adoring fans, has reached new levels of fame in the past few years, in large part due to her re-recordings.

Swift has re-recorded and released four out of six albums she made with her old label as a way to regain ownership of her old music. They’ve been tremendously successful. Her latest re-release is the iconic pop album “1989,” which sold more than 1.6 million copies in the U.S. in a week, outselling the original 2014 album.

But recording labels are feeling uneasy about Taylor Swift’s success, and now the industry is taking steps to prevent other artists from re-recording their music too.

We hear from Steve Knopper, editor at large for Billboard.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.