As Taylor "shed" her reputation in 2017, she slowly began to rebuild it the following year. In 2018, Taylor came back swinging as she embarked on her show-stopping Reputation stadium tour, broke her political silence, made history at the AMAs as the show's most decorated female artist, and left Big Machine Records after almost 13 years.
At the end of 2018, Taylor revealed that her new musical home would be Republic Records and Universal Music Group. The new deal gave Taylor ownership of any future masters as well as ensured that any sale of the label's shares in Spotify "will result in a distribution of money to their artists."