Taylor Swift to re-record her hits: Here’s what could go wrong

Taylor Swift after her extensive battle with ex-label Big Machine Records is aiming to strike back with re-recorded versions of her  past hit songs.

The Bad Blood hit maker, who is contractually authorized to re-record her greatest hits and has full plans of doing so, may face some challenges after the process rolls out.

In conversation with the Rolling Stone, Glenn Tilbrook, front man of acclaimed musical group Squeeze, who went through the same process gave his advice to the Love Story singer.

“My advice to Taylor Swift is that it takes an awful lot of time, trouble, and money to [re-record hits faithfully], and I would question what the intended outcome would be. If she does it and gets away with it, of course, I support her efforts 100 percent,” he said.

Founder of Better Noise Music, Allen Kovac gave his take on the fiasco by sharing an example of Mötley Crüe, that he manages, purchasing his masters from label Elektra.

“[Swift] already made the decision to move on [from Big Machine]. The minute she did that, she lost her leverage. . . . Something broke down. She didn’t get the kind of advice that would allow her to have a win-win,” he said.

He further said that when Mötley Crüe sat down to negotiate with Elektra’s then-head Sylvia Rhone, they agreed on a deal akin to the one Swift was offered by her ex-label.

“When Sylvia Rhone decided not to believe in the band, I said, ‘Well, instead of paying them an advance of eight figures [for future recordings], you keep that money — we’ll take $2 million [instead], and we’ll take all the masters.’ That’s a deal; that’s a transaction,” he said.

“What’s Taylor Swift’s transaction? Is she saying, ‘I’ll give you six more albums, let’s split it?’ Or did she just want her masters back because she’s Taylor Swift? Why does someone who invested in her as a teenager have to just give them to her? Even the Beatles don’t own their masters,” he added.

“When you re-record, do you ever capture that same atmosphere? Do you have the same band, the same studio? What is it you’re trying to do — say to your fans, ‘Don’t listen to the music you already love’? I don’t know fans like that… If you could show me [one artist for whom] it’s worked out well, I’d say it’s a great idea and everyone should do it; I just haven’t seen any evidence of that,” he said further.