Pop star Taylor Swift is setting the standard and extending opportunities to all music artists by pre-recording her voice to prevent AI from stealing or replicating her voice and music. Swift filed trademark applications on April 24 to pre-record her voice and is the first mainstream female artist to do so. Her signature phrase “Hey, it’s Taylor!” is mainly what she wishes to preserve as well as her Eras Tour introduction.
Swift is known to be very protective of her music and in May 2025 she bought back the rights to her first six studio albums, “Taylor Swift” (debut) to “Reputation” and her masters from Shamrock Capitol after previous issues with her original producers Big Machine Records.
Taylor Swift’s trademarks include all four of her re-recorded “Taylor’s Version” albums, other albums, various popular song titles and lyrics, the term “Swiftie” and even her cats’ names!
Mrs. Ferguson teaches freshmen PEACE Algebra 1 and Geometry Accelerated and is a big Swiftie. “She knows how to protect herself and I think that all the things she’s gone through to protect her music shows that she’s a boss,” states Ferguson. “Her new role is to lead and help younger artists to make sure that they’re not infringed upon.”
AI websites like Ai Voice Lab and Fish Audio have already attempted to recreate her voice and in August 2024, President Donald Trump posted AI-generated photos of Swift and fans endorsing him for president. Addressing this problem of AI manipulation shows how much of a threat the use of generative AI has become for the music industry.
Although not a Swiftie, PEACE junior Zoraida Jacquet believes that, “[AI] will make a lot of artists feel discouraged if AI gets more listens when it takes more effort [for artists] to actually make their own music. It doesn’t have the soul or heart [to make music].”
Swift’s ever-increasing popularity, 124 billion Spotify streams and huge fanbase make her a prime target for AI. Olivia Aguirre is a junior in COMPASS and a long-time fan. “It’s easy for me to tell what Taylor’s real voice sounds like and I don’t think she has anything to worry about, but she should still speak up about it… for other [artists] in her industry,” says Aguirre. “[Swift] has a very big impact on the music industry, so she definitely has the power to influence others to speak up about the issue,” she adds.
By standing against AI, Taylor Swift is helping protect the future of authenticity and ownership in music while setting the example for artists fighting to protect their music.
