Taylor Swift fans embark on frenzy of speculation amid Instagram countdown

USA Today

21-07-2025

It's been 533 days since Taylor Swift has released an album and new social media posts by the singer's company have the fandom running amok with theories that new music is imminent.
On July 18, Taylor Nation posted a new archive section of her website that includes 15 tabs for each of her albums (11 original recordings and four rerecords). Under each era are awards, concerts and 13 photos of the singer from the time. Swift's "Speak Now" song "Mine" was used in reference to Swift buying back her masters and regaining complete ownership over her entire discography.
"The best thing that has ever been ours is finally home," the caption read.
While fans scoured every pixel of the website update for clues to her next project, Taylor Nation posted a second carousel referencing the artist's first era.
"Welcome home, self titled," the account captioned. "Everything we need is finally right here by our side and to celebrate, stream the album with us at 1pm EDT today."
Fans flocked to Stationhead, a streaming site to congregate, chat and simultaneously listen to her first album. Some influencers like Ty Wilson theorized that she would drop the rerecorded version of her debut era, which she admitted in a letter to fans is complete.
"I really like how it sounds now," Swift teased.
On July 19, Swift's team posted another listening party for her second album, "Fearless." Instead of streaming at 1 p.m., the party would start at 2 p.m.
On July 20, they announced a listening party for her third album, "Speak Now," at 3 p.m.
And like clockwork, on July 21, they highlighted her fourth album, "Red," with a listening party at 4 p.m.
What's unknown is how the countdown will unfold and what, if anything, it's leading to. One could surmise it will go like this:
However, the singer's team may stop at a "Reputation" listening party, because the posts keep teasing "welcome home" and only her first six albums were purchased back from Shamrock Capital.
Another question is will the countdown include the rerecorded versions of "Fearless (Taylor's Version)," "Red (Taylor's Version)," "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" and "1989 (Taylor's Version)"?
Taylor Swift fans failed to manifest 'Reputation' news at American Music Awards
What fans think it could mean
As Wilson pointed out in one of his theory videos, in the caption of the post about her first album, the singer's team included a lyric from her 12th song, "I'm Only Me When I'm With You": "Everything I need is right here by my side."
He believes she may be hinting to her 12th era and adds Thursday's date of 7/24 adds up to 13 (7+2+4), which is a metric the singer has used in the past for announcements.
On the third post, fan Tyler Conroy said, "the countdown is countdowning..."
Reagan Baylee added, "OK HI OFFICIAL COUNTDOWN HELP 🤡🤡🤡."
It's possible Swift is reliving the Eras Tour as a countdown to a documentary series or movie about the tour. Fans spotted camera crews following the singer from Europe back to North America last year with the majority of production cameras at her final stop in Vancouver.
Fan Kelly Ann offered a frustrating scenario: "I swear to god if all this is just a countdown to a merch drop."
The hoopla could also lead to nothing. The fandom went down a mythologizing blackhole for two years thinking "Reputation (Taylor's Version)" would be announced at the tail end of the Eras Tour, at the Grammys, at the iHeartRadio Music Awards and at the American Music Awards.
Swift said in her letter, "Full transparency, I haven't even re-recorded a quarter of it" and "there will be a time (if you're into the idea) for the unreleased vault tracks from that album to hatch."
Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network's Taylor Swift reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.