Rolling Stone

• At first, these seemed to be just re-recordings so that the pop icon could own her own music.
• Swift is on a journey to rerecord all of the studio albums released while contracted to Big Machine Records.
• One of the most controversial updates that you’ll find in Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is the lyric change in the song Better Than Revenge (Taylor’s Version).

Remastering and updating

• Remastering music offers the opportunity to release an album after it has been filtered through updated technology.
• Often this means being able to eliminate artefacts in the sound, or fix frequency or balancing issues.
• In Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and many other remastered albums, the changes in sound and quality are subtle, but they are there.

Better than revenge?

• In addition to these new orchestrations and mixing of instruments, Swift has taken the opportunity with her Taylor’s Version recordings to update the lyrics in Better Than Revenge (Taylor’s Version).
• Swift alters the original, controversial lyric “But she’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress” to “He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches”.
• The lengthy prologue Swift includes on the album does not even explicitly address the change, but alludes to the change.

Shifting the Narrative

• Swift has been using these re-recordings as an opportunity to update the narrative for herself.
• It was accompanied by a 14-minute short film/music video to further tell this new narrative.
• But now, with Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), Swift is trying to push forward a narrative of positivity and feminism.

• Over the past 15 years, I have officiated over 20 weddings for friends and family, plus nearly 200 more as a part-time professional wedding officiant.
• These weddings have ranged from simple elopements to fancy ceremonies before hundreds of guests.
• They have taken place at farms, beaches, mountaintops, hotels, wineries and warehouses – but never at a church.
• When two friends whom I had introduced to each other asked me to officiate their wedding back in 2008, I was touched and honored.

Mail-order ministry

• Hensley’s religious views were hard to categorize, and the congregations that he formed kicked him out when disagreements arose.
• The ULC’s only doctrine is to “do that which is right,” which each person can define for themselves.
• Hensley offered free mail-order ordinations and soon began mass ordinations at spiritual conventions and college campuses, where he was a popular speaker.
• The ULC Monastery’s websites now dominate the online ordination business, claiming to receive 1,000 requests each day.

My wedding, my way

• They want their weddings performed by someone they know, trust and care about and who will deliver a ceremony tailored to them.
• These desires reflect two key trends in the wedding industry and in American religion: personalization and secularization.
• The church has authorized same-sex weddings since at least 1971, when Kirby Hensley presided over a wedding of two women.
• While the ULC often serves as a religion of convenience, it has allowed many spiritual and secular people to practice what is sacred to them.

• Foundry, a brand platform specializing in acquiring, nurturing, and growing online brands, has acquired Blu Atlas for an undisclosed eight-figure sum.
• Blu Atlas is a direct-to-consumer (D2C) men's skincare, haircare, and fragrance brand and marks Foundry’s third acquisition into the rapidly growing men's personal care industry.
• This acquisition perfectly aligns with our mission of enriching people’s lives.”
  Hendre Ackermann, CEO of Foundry, added, “We are thrilled for the opportunity to take Blu Atlas to its next stage of growth.
• Reflecting on the acquisition, Deep Patel, founder of Blu Atlas, shared, “I was driven to start Blu Atlas when I couldn’t find clean and effective men’s skincare that worked.

• Founded in 2018, GUIN Records was created under the premise to become the first artist friendly label.
• The mission has always been to amplify voices that echo the core values of wellness and consciousness through the power of music.
• To provide strong visibility in the marketplace, GUIN has partnered with key distributors such as: ADA, FUGA, and SoundOn.
• GUIN Records has aligned with KOGO Management to present the formal releases of music's buzzworthy acts, Curtis Waters and Asha Imuno.