Taylor Swift claims Scooter Braun wouldn’t allow the people who purchased her masters to contact her before the sale went through.
A private company have reportedly spent $300 million on the ‘Lover’ hitmaker’s master recordings. They were originally bought from Big Machine Label Group earlier this year by Scooter’s Ithaca Holdings LLC.
In an open statement to her fans, she wrote: “A few weeks ago my team received a letter from a private equity company called Shamrock Holdings, letting us know that they had bought 100% of my music, videos, and album art from Scooter Braun.
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This was the second time my music has been sold without my knowledge. 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.”
And Taylor promised her fans she has “plenty of surprises” in store.
She added: “I have recently begun re-recording my older music and it has already proven to be both exciting and creatively fulfilling. I have plenty of surprises in store. I want to thank you guys for supporting me through this ongoing saga, and I can’t wait for you to hear what I’ve been dreaming up.”
Been getting a lot of questions about the recent sale of my old masters. I hope this clears things up. pic.twitter.com/sscKXp2ibD
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) November 16, 2020
Meanwhile, Taylor claimed at the time of the initial purchase that she had never been given the opportunity to buy her own music herself, saying she was “denied” the chance to own her own recordings.
She said: “I spent 10 years of my life trying rigorously to purchase my masters outright and was then denied that opportunity, and I just don’t want that to happen to another artist if I can help it. I want to at least raise my hand and say, ‘This is something that an artist should be able to earn back over the course of their deal – not as a renegotiation ploy – and something that artists should maybe have the first right of refusal to buy.’ God, I would have paid so much for them! Anything to own my work that was an actual sale option, but it wasn’t given to me.”
