Following the very public dispute over Taylor Swift’s master recordings, the pop superstar revealed May 30 that she now owns the rights to her music.
The saga dates back to 2019, when music executive Scooter Braun bought the master recordings for her first six albums from Swift’s former record label, Big Machine Records. Swift at the time detested the sale, saying in a public statement that she wasn’t given the opportunity to buy them herself.
Swift announced in 2020 her intention to rerecord and rerelease her first six albums. Those rerecorded albums were all given “Taylor’s Version” titles in an effort to claim this new work as her own. Her first rerelease came in 2022 with “Fearless” and her most recent came in 2023 with “1989.”
Swift and Braun’s public dispute over her master recordings is the subject of the Discovery+ docuseries “Taylor Swift vs Scooter Braun: Bad Blood,” which dropped on HBO Max in 2024. Fittingly, the first episode is titled “Taylor’s Version” and the second, “Scooter’s Version.”
Here’s a timeline of the feud.
2019: Scooter Braun’s Company Acquires Taylor Swift’s Former Record Label and Her Masters
The public dispute stems back to 2019, when Braun’s company, Ithaca Holdings, acquired Big Machine Label Group — the group Swift recorded her first albums under. As part of that deal, the group received control of albums “Taylor Swift,” “Fearless,” “Speak Now,” “Red,” “1989” and “Reputation.”
About a year and a half later, Braun sold the master rights to those six albums, Variety reported.
Swift previously worked with Big Machine Records until 2018, when she left and signed a multiyear deal with Universal Music Group.
2019: Taylor Swift Pens Post About Sale of Her Music
On June 30, 2019, Swift shared in a post to Tumblr why she left Big Machine Records and how she learned about the sale of her masters to Braun.
“For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work,” Swift wrote. “Instead I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in. I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future.”
Swift then said she found out Braun acquired her masters in the news like the rest of the world.
“All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years,” she wrote.
She then referenced her 2016 fallout with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, who she said were clients of Braun’s. Swift said he played a role in their “bullying” of her.
“Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy,” Swift continued. “Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”
2020: Taylor Swift Responds to Scooter Braun’s Sale of Her Music
In November 2020, news broke of Braun’s company reportedly selling Swift’s music to another group. Swift responded online and shared how she found out about the sale.
She wrote her team attempted to negotiate with Braun in an effort to get back control of her master recordings. After explaining why her team and Braun’s team never came to an agreement, Swift said the company buying her “music, videos and album art from Scooter Braun” reached out to let her know about the sale. Swift says she learned Braun would continue to make money off her old music for a long time, and she announced she had started the process of rerecording her old music.
“I have plenty of surprises in store,” she wrote, concluding her post by thanking her fans for their support.
2021: Taylor Swift Begins Rereleasing Her Old Music
Swift began rereleasing her music in 2021. She dropped the rerecorded version of “Love Story” in February 2021 before rereleasing the entire “Fearless” album, titled “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” that April. One of those surprises Swift promised her fans came in the form of vault tracks — songs written at the time of the original album but did not make the final cut.
Her subsequent rereleased albums, “Red (Taylor’s Version)” (2021), “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” (2023) and “1989 (Taylor’s Version) (2023),” contain vault tracks.
2022: Scooter Braun Speaks Out About His Handling of Taylor Swift’s Music
In September 2022, Braun sat down with NPR for an interview, and he opened up about the feud.
Braun was asked if he would handle the acquisition in a different manner if he could go back in time. And he acknowledged that there was something he would change if he could.
“Yes, I would have. I learned an important lesson from that,” he said.
In his interview, Braun explained that he was under a nondisclosure agreement while he was negotiating with Big Machine Records, and said that affected how much he was able to say about the deal before it closed.
While interacting with the record agency’s owner, Braun claimed he learned that Swift had no interest in her masters.
“What I told him was, hey, if any of the artists want to come back and buy into this, you have to let me know. And he shared a letter with me that’s out there publicly that — you know, the artist you’re referring to said, I don’t want to participate in my masters. I’ve decided to, you know, not make this deal, blah, blah, blah. So that was the idea I was under,” he said.
According to Swift, though, she did want to acquire the rights to her masters. However, Big Machine said she could only do so by staying at their agency and slowly earning the rights to each album with every new album she recorded from there on out. Ultimately, she turned that offer down and left for a new record agency.
Braun asserted that he was “excited to work with every artist on the label” and had started making phone calls after the deal closed to tell artists he was a part of it.
“And before I could even do that — I made four phone calls; I started to do those phone calls — all hell broke loose. So I think a lot of things got lost in translation. I think that when you have a conflict with someone, it’s very hard to resolve it if you’re not willing to have a conversation,” he said.
Braun went on to describe the one thing he regrets about the whole situation.
“So the regret I have there is that I made the assumption that everyone, once the deal was done, was going to have a conversation with me, see my intent, see my character and say, great, let’s be in business together. And I made that assumption with people that I didn’t know.”
2023: Taylor Swift Continues to Release New Music and Launches Her ‘Eras Tour’
Swift’s viral 2019 Tumblr post concluded with a reminder that a new album, “Lover,” would be dropping that August.
That album was the first of many successful ones released after she left Big Machine Records. In addition to “Lover,” Swift dropped more albums during the pandemic: “Folklore” and “Evermore” in 2020, “Midnights” in 2022, and “The Tortured Poets Department” in 2024.
In 2023, Swift released a deluxe version of “Midnights” and kicked off her huge “Eras Tour,” which features sets across all of Swift’s discography, including bonus tracks from her rerecorded albums.
2023: Major Singers Drop Scooter Braun
In August 2023, big talents like Demi Lovato and Idina Menzel parted ways with Braun. There were also rumors that Bieber, who’s arguably Braun’s biggest client, and Ariana Grande stopped working with the music manager. Representatives for both artists did not respond to NBC News’ previous requests for comment.
A source previously told NBC News that Braun was focusing on his role as CEO of Hybe America, a subsidiary of an entertainment company that in 2021, merged with his company Ithaca Holdings.
“All of Scooter Braun’s clients are under contract and negotiations have been going on for several months as Scooter steps into his larger role as Hybe America CEO,” the source told NBC News. “People are spreading rumors based on what they know but they are off.”
The source added that conversations about representation have been ongoing for months and there is “no bad blood” between Braun and the clients.
2024: Scooter Braun Announces His Retirement
Braun announced that he is retiring as a music manager in June 2024.
In a lengthy statement shared on social media, Braun reflected on his 23-year career and the loss of a major client in 2023, though he didn’t name the artist.
Braun is not leaving the music industry entirely, however. He will still serve as the CEO of Hybe America.
2024: ‘Taylor Swift vs Scooter Braun: Bad Blood’ Drops on HBO
In June 2024, just days after Braun announced his retirement from music managing, Discovery+ released the investigative docuseries “Taylor Swift vs Scooter Braun: Bad Blood.”
While Swift did not participate in the project, the end of the documentary features a statement from Swift’s representatives, TODAY.com can confirm.
It reads: “Taylor has completely moved on from this saga, and has turned what started out as an extremely painful situation into one of the most fulfilling endeavors of her life. None of these men will ever be able to take anything away from Taylor’s legacy as a songwriter, singer, director, philanthropist and advocate for artists’ rights.”
2025: Taylor Swift Says She Bought Back Her Old Music
On May 30, Swift wrote in a lengthy letter to fans on her website that she was able to purchase the master recordings of her first six albums.
“To my fans, you know how important this has been to me — so much so that I meticulously re-recorded and released 4 of my albums, calling them Taylor’s Version,” she wrote. “The passionate support you showed those albums and the success story you turned The Eras Tour into is why I was able to buy back my music. I can’t thank you enough for helping to reunite me with this art that I have dedicated my life to, but have never owned until now.”
In a statement to TODAY.com, Braun said, “I am happy for her.”
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