Grammy award-winning singer Taylor Swift has once again slammed Scooter Braun after he sold the rights to her master recordings to a private company, and shared that Braun wanted to silence her in exchange for the opportunity to bid on her own work.
It was reported that Braun, a celebrity manager, sold Swift’s master recordings to a private-equity company called Shamrock Holdings. Swift took to Twitter to respond to reports that Braun sold Big Machine Label Group, which includes the master rights for Swift’s first six albums.
In a lengthy note for her fans, Swift expressed her displeasure about the deal, saying that it denies her the chance to buy back the tapes herself and resume control over the rights to her first six albums.
“Been getting a lot of questions about the recent sale of my old masters. I hope this clears things up,” she tweeted along with two images — a note from her side to her fans and a letter that she sent to the investment fund that purchased the rights to her master recordings from Braun.
The singer shared that she wanted to regain ownership of her music and tried to enter negotiations with Braun but his team required her to sign “an ironclad NDA” before she could even place a bid.
She said that the agreement would forbid her from saying a negative word about Braun ever again.
“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,” she said.
She added: “He would never even quote my team a price. These master recordings were not for sale to me.”
Swift continued: “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 per cent of my music, videos, and album art from Scooter Braun.”
“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,” she added.
The singer wanted to crack the deal with Shamrock, and regain ownership of her music.
“As soon as we started communication with Shamrock, I learned that under their terms Scooter Braun will continue to profit off my old musical catalogue 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 said.
Now, the singer has started re-recording the songs, and is finding it creatively fulfilling.
“I have recently begun re-recording my older music and it has already proven to be both exciting and creatively fulfilling,” Swift said, adding: “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,” Swift informed.
Under her contract with Republic Records and Universal Music Group, she is allowed to re-record the songs from those first six albums, which include “Taylor Swift” (2006), “Fearless” (2008), “Speak Now” (2010), “Red” (2012), “1989” (2014), and “Reputation” (2017).