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Taylor Swift releases first re-recording sample of 'Love Story'

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Taylor Swift has released a first listen to one of her back catalog re-recording efforts.

The singer shared a clip, below, of one of her fan-favorite classics, "Love Story," from her 2008 breakthrough sophomore album, Fearless.

The tune is bundled into a Match.com commercial made by Ryan Reynolds, so you have to sit through some yes-2020-was-terrible dating app advertising synergy before you get to the good stuff.

Wrote Swift on Twitter: "Okay so while my new re-records are NOT done, my friend @VancityReynolds asked me if he could use a snippet of one for a LOLsome commercial he wrote so...here’s a sneak peak of Love Story! Working hard to get the music to you soon!!"

At first blush, the song sounds very close to the original, though with perhaps a bit punchier of a production soundscape.

Swift is re-recording her early albums after her Big Machine Label Group catalog was sold against her will to Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings in 2019. The catalog was, in turn, re-sold last month to Shamrock Holdings for a reported $300 million. As Swift's contract gives her the right to re-record material from 2006's Taylor Swift, Fearless, 2010's Speak Now, 2012's Red and 2014's 1989, the artist is doing just that. It's a potentially savvy counter move that will presumably drive fans to her re-recordings (which she owns) and devalue her old recordings (which she doesn't). The re-recordings would also allow her to license the songs to movies, TV shows and, as in the above case, commercials. While any company that licenses the old versions of her songs once these new versions are available risks alienating Swift.

"I'm very excited about doing because my contract says that starting Nov. 2020, so next year, I can record albums one-five all over again," Swift said in a GMA interview last year. "I'm very excited about it. Because I think that artists deserve to own their work. I feel very passionate about that."

She added to Billboard last year, "Every week, we get a dozen synch requests to use 'Shake It Off' in some advertisement or 'Blank Space' in some movie trailer, and we say no to every single one of them. And the reason I’m rerecording my music next year is because I do want my music to live on. I do want it to be in movies, I do want it to be in commercials. But I only want that if I own it. It’s going to be fun, because it’ll feel like regaining a freedom and taking back what’s mine."

When Swift's catalog was recently re-sold, she released a statement condemning the move. “A few weeks ago my team received a letter from a private equity company called Shamrock Holdings, letting us know that they had bought 100% of my music, videos, and album art from Scooter Braun,” Swift wrote. "This was the second time my music had been sold without my knowledge. The letter told me that they wanted to reach out before the sale to let me know, but that Scooter Braun had required that they make no contact with me or my team, or the deal would be off.”

Clearly Swift is not afraid and confident she'll make it out of this mess.

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