Taylor Swift Announces Surprise Release Of 9th Album ‘Evermore’ On Friday

Topline

Less than five months after the surprise release of her eighth studio album, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has announced her second album to be released during the pandemic–again with a little under 24 hours’ notice.

Key Facts

Key Background

Now signed to Republic Records, Swift is in the middle of rerecording her first seven albums, all released under previous label Big Machine Records. Last month, Swift confirmed a report that her music catalogue had been sold for the second time in two years–this time by Hollywood mogul Scooter Braun, who acquired Swift’s old label and with it, her older music–in June 2019, to a private equity group. Variety reported the deal valued Swift’s catalog at more than $300 million. In a letter to the private equity firm, Shamrock Holdings, posted on Twitter, Swift confirmed she was already rerecording her old music, a move she said in August 2019 would effectively enable her to take ownership of her entire music catalog under contractual terms.

Crucial Quote 

“To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs,” Swift said of Folklore’s follow-up. “To try and put it more poetically, it feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music. We chose to wander deeper in.”

Big Number

$365 million. That’s how much Forbes estimates Swift’s net worth to be. The star was ranked number 62 on this year’s list of America’s Self-Made Women.

Further Reading

Taylor Swift To Re-Record Songs After Music Catalogue Is Sold To Private Equity Fund For $300 Million (Forbes)

Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’ Is The First Album To Sell One Million Copies In The U.S. In 2020 (Forbes)