Singer Taylor Swift has been involved in a longstanding feud with music mogul Scooter Braun. The Bad Blood crooner took to Twitter and informed her fans that Braun has sold the rights to her first six albums without her knowledge. According to Variety, Braun sold the recordings, known as masters, to an investment fund. It is said the deal is thought to be worth more than $300 million (£227m). After it was reported that the entrepreneur had sold the singer’s Big Machine Records masters of her first six albums, Swift responded in a letter detailing her side of the story.
“I simply cannot in good conscience bring myself to be involved in benefiting Scooter Braun’s interests directly or indirectly,” she wrote. “As you know, for the past year I’ve been actively trying to regain ownership of my master recordings. With that goal in mind, my team attempted to enter into negotiations with Scooter Braun. His team wanted me to sign an ironclad NDA stating I would never say another word about Scooter Braun unless it was positive, before we could even look at the financial records of BMLG (which is always the first step in a purchase of this nature).”
Swift continued, “So, I would have to sign a document that would silence me forever before I could even have a chance to bid on my own work. My legal team said that this is absolutely NOT normal, and they’ve never seen an NDA like this presented unless it was to silence an assault accuser by paying them off. He would never even quote my team a price. These master recordings were not for sale to me.” She recalled how a few weeks ago her team received a letter from a private equity company called Shamrock Holdings informing her that they had “bought 100% of my music, videos, and album art from Scooter Braun.”
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Swift stated, “The letter told me that they wanted to reach out before the sale to let me know, but that Scooter Braun had required that they make no contact with me or my team, or the deal would be off. As soon as we started communication with Shamrock, I learned that under their terms Scooter Braun will continue to profit off my old musical catalog for many years. I was hopeful and open to the possibility of a partnership with Shamrock, but Scooter’s participation is a non-starter for me.” She has now started re-recording her old music. “It has already proven to be both exciting and creatively fulfilling. I have plenty of surprises in store.” Braun bought the Big Machine record label in 2019 after Swift left the label in 2018 for a new deal with Universal Music Group. Braun and the pop star have been involved in a bitter public dispute ever since.