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Swift’s decision to revisit her early discography stems from a dispute over the ownership of her master recordings. The background is that her former label, Big Machine Records, was sold in 2019 to Ithaca Holdings, owned by music manager Scooter Braun—who also manages big-name artists like Justin Bieber and Kanye West. Swift was publicly unhappy with this acquisition, condemning Braun as a “bully” and asserting her frustrations about losing the rights to her original recordings.