One of the biggest ongoing feuds in the music industry right now is the one between Taylor Swift and her former label, Big Machine. That relationship isn’t exactly a positive one, and it looks like things have taken a strange turn on that front.
Fans have noticed that Taylor Swift’s artist page on Spotify is in a weird state right now. On the artist page, instead of the regular (or deluxe) versions of Swift’s albums released on Big Machine (everything pre-Lover), the page is populated with “Big Machine Radio Release Special” versions of the albums. These versions of the albums feature all the songs from the original releases, but each track is preceded by a commentary track that spans from about a minute to three minutes in length.
| Taylor Swift’s original albums are no longer available on Spotify unless you search for them. However, The Big Machine Specials have been kept, yet another DISGUSTING act of shameless greed. Reply with #TaylorSwiftSpotify pic.twitter.com/unUGor8JeU
— Taylor Swift News (@TSwiftNewsLA) May 8, 2020
As of this post, the Big Machine editions of the albums appear on Swift’s artist page on the desktop Spotify app, but regular versions of Swift’s albums show up on the mobile app, where the Big Machine editions aren’t present at all. On desktop, the normal deluxe edition of 1989 and the “Platinum Edition” of Fearless are shown. The non-Big Machine versions of the albums are still on Spotify, but can only be found on desktop when searching for them directly.
It appears these “Radio Release Special” versions of Swift’s albums started popping up on Spotify in 2018 before re-emerging to take over Swift’s artist page today. In light of all this, fans have taken to Twitter to share their thoughts about the situation, and the common sentiment seems to be that Big Machine and Scooter Braun are up to no good.
This is not the first time when Scooter tries to sabotage Taylor, I’m so tired of this greedy man, it’s honestly disgusting, I hope Taylor’s doing okay #TaylorSwiftSpotify pic.twitter.com/HK5m6fqcJ5
— most beautiful people on earth (@swift_afterglow) May 8, 2020
RT / REPLY WITH #TaylorSwiftSpotify IF YOU HATE THESE TWO RATS
— Hana (@MissAmericHANA) May 8, 2020
Who’s the most pathetic person on earth?#TaylorSwiftSpotify pic.twitter.com/ZdjH8rQ4rH
— Candace (@czarinaalvie13) May 8, 2020
It’s not all bad/weird news for Swifties today, though, as Swift announced this morning that a concert special will be airing on TV soon.