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Singer Steven Wilmot posted a cover of “Need” on Feb. 13th, and it sent the Taylor Swift fandom on TikTok into a tailspin wondering whether the singer was somehow behind the song or if it was an unauthorized recording.
The pop tune is believed by fans to be an unreleased “vault song” from Swift’s seventh era “Lover.”
The song has never been officially published. It’s not registered with ASCAP or BMI, two nonprofit organizations that license music. It’s not posted on the U.S. Copyright Office database with her other songs. And the Eras Tour singer hasn’t released a physical copy.
The only time the song made its way to Swiftie ears was in February 2023 when it was presumably leaked online. All versions were wiped from social media including this YouTube video removed by Universal Music Group, the singer’s label.
Fan archive sites like Taylor Swift Switzerland catalogued the lyrics. The song starts: “Want is the cigarette smoke on a jacket / You wore to the wrong part of town / Desire is the sound of the whiskey / Telling me you miss me.”
Wilmot sang the same lines. His bubble gum chorus riffs were in the style of the track leaked two years ago.
The 26-year-old channeled Swift’s album artwork with pink and blue wispy clouds and pink cursive letters spelling out the tune’s title. He credited the Eras Tour singer as a writer and producer on Spotify and Apple Music.
“‘Need’ is a song written and produced completely by Taylor,” Wilmot said in a statement posted to TikTok after backlash from fans filled the comments. “I have never claimed to be Taylor or her team. I do not own the credits to this song. Taylor owns full credit. I didn’t expect this song to blow up like it did.”
The cover has been removed from YouTube and Spotify. Apple Music’s version was still up as of Thursday morning.
In a follow-up statement on TikTok, Wilmot said he took the song down “due to all the issues with the song having incorrect credits and some people criticizing it for the artwork cover.”
Licensing music: more than a ‘need’
Swift is known for having a catalog of songs written — but not published — from throughout her different eras. She’s shared some of these hidden treasures on the rereleases of her albums, referring to them as “from the vault” songs. The superstar has only debuted one vault song from “Lover,” the morning of her first Eras Tour concert in March 2023. It’s called “All of the Girls You Loved Before.”
And she has endorsed covers of her songs. In 2020, she applauded the Jack Leopards & the Dolphin Club version of “Look What You Made Me Do.” She tweeted she was “VERY STOKED” the track played in the BBC spy drama “Killing Eve.”
Covering songs is nothing new for up-and-coming artists.
“For songs that have been recorded and released, there is a compulsory mechanical license,” says Janice Jackson, the owner of Travelers Hollow Music in Nashville who has decades of knowledge in music management, music licensing and music publishing.
A compulsory mechanical license is a legal copyright provision allowing anyone to record and distribute a cover of a commercially released song. Artists can record a version of someone else’s song without explicit permission, provided they file notice and make accountings.
But can you cover a commercial song, without permission, that has not been published and released? The answer is no.
Long live the Eras Tour with our enchanting book
“Once the song is set on paper or there’s a recording — which I’m sure Taylor did — it’s considered copyrighted in the eyes of the law,” Jackson says.
She checked another database that licenses music, the Harry Fox Agency, and could not find the song.
“Which means he would have to get a license direct from Universal,” she explains.
Jackson admits she has never heard of a case in which an artist covers an unofficial song, but says it’s considered copyright infringement.
In the comments on Wilmot’s TikTok post, he said the song will “slowly disappear from streaming services (YouTube, TikTok and Spotify will be sooner, Apple Music takes a few days) but it’ll be back soon 💕.”
Swift’s team did not respond to an email requesting a comment.
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Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network’s Taylor Swift reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.
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