Why is Taylor Swift’s latest song drop so hard to find?

Understanding Taylor Swift’s marketing requires a degree in locating and analyzing “Easter Eggs” in every photo, text, or performance the megastar releases.

As eager fans opened up their music-streaming apps at midnight on Friday, expecting the four new tracks Swift had promised would be available in support of her upcoming tour — which kicked off Friday in Swift City, Arizona — they weren’t sure if it had a deeper meaning than what is on the surface.

“I’ve been stressing out for 30 f***ing minutes trying to find these 4 new songs Taylor released,” read a caption in a video of a TikTok user trying to find the songs.

Another, more conspiratorial, Swiftie said the difficulty in finding the tracks could have “crazy implications” for the future of her music and re-recordings, as she theorized that one of the songs wasn’t included on an album for Swift to use her “Speak Now.” “ re-release” album and claim she wrote all the songs on it.

But perhaps the answer to why the songs were hard to find meant that Swift released them — “Eyes Open,” “Safe & Sound,” “If This Was A Movie,” and “All Of The Girls You Loved Before” — as singles released rather than on a new album, making them a little harder to find with simple searches on streaming platforms. (Adding “Taylor’s Version” to the end of song titles makes them appear on streaming platforms.)

Swifties are dropping everything to stream the new tracks

“Eyes Open” and “Safe and Sound” were originally recorded for the Hunger Games franchise — a film series that seems to be enjoying a well-timed renaissance on TikTok — while “If This Was a Movie” was a bonus track.” Speak Now.” All Of The Girls You Loved Before, a Lover spin-off, has never been released. Unless, of course, you’re counting the recent leak of this song, which has been making the rounds on TikTok since before Valentine’s Day, Star’s review of Aisling Murphy’s singles in this week’s Star Tracks.

For the re-recording of “Safe and Sound,” Swift somehow managed to reunite much-loved folk band The Civil Wars (although they now go by their own names), and she’s retained the youthful zest and earnest trepidation of first life the route over a decade ago. The warbling acoustic guitar licks are just as clean as 2012 and Swift sounds in great shape.

The Eras Tour begins Friday in Swift City, Arizona

Swift’s Eras tour — her first tour in nearly five years — will make 52 stops across the US and follows the release of her new album, Midnights, last fall.

Glendale, Arizona, renamed the city “Swift City” for the weekend in anticipation of their first stops there on Friday and Saturday, and some fans hailed the show — at State Farm Stadium, where Super Bowl LVII was played last month — their “version of the Super Bowl”.

Other fans have created elaborate costumes for her shows, while others are predicting set lists and analyzing every Instagram photo she posts. So there’s certainly more Taylor Swift content for fans to ponder over the coming months.

“That’s a bloody legacy,” as Swift would say.

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