Who mastered Taylor Swift’s “august” at the final audio stage?

Randy Merrill mastered Taylor Swift’s “august” at Sterling Sound in New York City.

Mastering is the final major audio stage before a recording is distributed. It prepares the finished mix for consistent playback across formats and listening systems. Merrill’s credit therefore belongs to the technical finishing stage, not to the song’s writing or principal production.

The track had a broader production team. Swift and Jack Antonoff wrote it, and Swift, Antonoff, and Joe Alwyn are credited with production. Recording and mixing involved other engineers and studios, so those names can be mistaken for the mastering engineer.

Sterling Sound is a well-known mastering facility, and Randy Merrill has mastered many major commercial releases. The credit helps distinguish the people who shaped the composition from the specialist who prepared its final released audio.