Four years ago, when the world was a darker place without Taylor’s Versions or The Eras Tour, Scooter Braun acquired Taylor Swift’s musical catalogue in a historic $300 million deal. And the original American Idol, Kelly Clarkson, had something to say about that.
On July 13, 2019, Clarkson tweeted: “@taylorswift13 just a thought, U should go in & re-record all the songs that U don’t own the masters on exactly how U did them but put brand new art & some kind of incentive so fans will no longer buy the old versions. I’d buy all of the new versions just to prove a point.”
Now we all know what happened next. In 2021, Swift released the re-recordings Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version); Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is due out in July of this year. Fans have heavily supported these new albums, making Clarkson’s prediction come true.
Not everyone was happy with Clarkson’s advice, though.
Not everyone was happy with Clarkson’s advice, though.
“I think Scooter took offence to it,” Clarkson told Andy Cohen in a recent Town Hall interview on Radio Andy (Ch. 102), “because we ran into each other … and I think he reached out at the time to my manager. It wasn’t anything against him. I just — when she came out and said that, and I heard about it, I was like, ‘Whatever! Like, re-record them. Your fans will support you.’ Uh, they did! She’s every top record right now [on the] charts.”
Clarkson clarified that she never meant to attack Braun in her tweet, but she genuinely didn’t think it was fair that Swift hadn’t been given the chance to purchase her own music before it was sold.
“[Taylor] writes everything. It’s so important to her. She’s a businesswoman. It felt wrong that she didn’t have the opportunity, right? That’s the thing,” she explained. “I’m not that artist, I don’t care what I own. I’m not a businesswoman at all. But I knew it was important to her … And literally, she’s a genius. Not only did she re-record them, she planned it with this Eras Tour. This woman is brilliant.”
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