"All of the music I've ever made now belongs to me," said the star, announcing the news on her official website. "I've been bursting into tears of joy... ever since I found out this is really happening." The saga began in June 2019, when music manager Scooter Braun bought Swift's former record label Big Machine and, with it, all of the songs from Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation.

Swift had personal objections to the deal, blaming Braun for complicity in the "incessant, manipulative bullying" against her by Kanye West, one of his clients. Swift responded by vowing to re-record those records, effectively diminishing the value of those master tapes, and putting ownership back in her hands. To date, she has released four re-recorded albums - known as "Taylor's Versions" - with dozens of bonus tracks and supplementary material.

In her letter, the star told fans she had yet to complete the project, after "hitting a stopping point" while trying to remake 2017's Reputation album - which dealt with public scrutiny of her private life, and the fall-out of her feud with Kanye West. "The Reputation album was so specific to that time in my life," she explained. "All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposefully misunderstood...

"To be perfectly honest, it's the one album in those first six that I thought couldn't be improved by re-doing it... so I kept putting it off." The star recently previewed the new version of Reputation's first single, Look What You Made Me Do, in an episode of The Handmaid's Tale - but her letter suggested that a full re-recording would be delayed or even scrapped. However, she promised that vault tracks from the record would be released at a future date, if fans were "into the idea". (BBC/ Getty Images)