Warm-Up: Taylor’s Version and From the Vault

Unofficial fan trivia. Boston Made is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Taylor Swift or her team. Every fact below comes from her public career.

Few stories in modern music turned listeners into participants the way the re-recordings did. Starting in 2021, Taylor Swift began recording her early albums again from scratch, labeling each one “(Taylor’s Version)” and adding unreleased songs “From the Vault.” This warm-up covers why it happened, what came out and how the story ended.

Why she re-recorded

Her first six albums, from the 2006 debut through reputation in 2017, were released by Big Machine Records, and the label owned the master recordings. In late 2018 she signed with Republic Records, and Lover (2019) was her first album there.

A master recording is the original recorded version of a song, the one that gets pressed, streamed and licensed. Whoever owns the master earns from those uses and controls them. A songwriter can own the songs themselves, the words and melodies, without owning the recordings. That difference is the whole story here.

On June 30, 2019, Big Machine announced that it had been acquired by Ithaca Holdings, the company led by Scooter Braun, in a deal reported at about $330 million. In late 2020, the masters were sold again, to Shamrock Holdings, for a reported $405 million. She objected publicly to both sales and said she would re-record the albums so that she would own new versions of her own songs. She began the work in November 2020.

The four Taylor’s Version albums

• Fearless (Taylor’s Version), April 9, 2021. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
• Red (Taylor’s Version), November 12, 2021. It holds 30 songs, nine of them From the Vault.
• Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), July 7, 2023. It gave her the record for most No. 1 albums by a female artist.
• 1989 (Taylor’s Version), October 27, 2023. It opened with more than 1.6 million units in the United States, outselling the original album’s first week.

Because she wrote or co-wrote the original songs, she was able to record them again and release new versions that she owned. Fans did the rest. Many switched their playlists and streams to the new recordings, and each Taylor’s Version album debuted at No. 1. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) even outsold the original album’s opening week.

She announced two of them from the Eras Tour stage: Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) at a show in Nashville in May 2023, and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) at a show in Los Angeles that August.

What “From the Vault” means

Each re-recording came with extra songs she had written for the original album but never released. They are labeled “From the Vault,” and they turned each re-release into something new rather than a simple copy.

Some vault songs became hits of their own. When 1989 (Taylor’s Version) arrived, three vault tracks, “Is It Over Now?,” “Now That We Don’t Talk” and “‘Slut!,'” took the top three spots on the Hot 100, with “Is It Over Now?” at No. 1.

The 10-minute song that rewrote the chart

The most famous vault release is “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version),” from Red (Taylor’s Version). It reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 and became the longest song ever to top the chart, passing Don McLean’s “American Pie,” which runs 8 minutes and 37 seconds.

On the same day the album came out, November 12, 2021, she released All Too Well: The Short Film, which she wrote and directed. It later won the Grammy for Best Music Video. Red (Taylor’s Version) also set a record when 26 of its songs debuted on the Hot 100 in a single week.

Buying back the masters

On May 30, 2025, she announced on her website that she had bought the master recordings of her first six albums from Shamrock. The purchase also covered the related music videos, concert films, album art, photography and unreleased material. She credited fans, the re-recordings and the Eras Tour with making it possible. The price was not disclosed.

Two early albums never got a full Taylor’s Version release. In her May 2025 letter she said her debut had been completely re-recorded, while reputation was far from finished. As of this countdown, neither Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version) nor reputation (Taylor’s Version) has been released, and no date has been announced. Keep an eye out for the trivia question that asks which re-recordings actually exist.

How to remember it

• Four released: Fearless and Red in 2021, Speak Now and 1989 in 2023.
• Not released: the debut and reputation.
• The longest No. 1: “All Too Well (10 Minute Version).”
• The ending: she bought back her original masters on May 30, 2025.

A quick tip on reading questions: “Taylor’s Version” questions often hinge on the year. The two 2021 releases are the two that made the most noise at the start, Fearless and Red. The two 2023 releases, Speak Now and 1989, arrived during the Eras Tour and were announced from its stage. Pair them up that way and the order takes care of itself.

The Swiftie Finale opens Friday, Nov. 13 at 1:13 p.m. ET.