Taylor Swift gave an update about the ongoing legal process of buying back her master recordings from Scooter Braun on Monday night. And while the opportunity to repurchase her music is not looking likely, the pop star reassured her fans that despite the roadblocks the music manager has thrown in her way, she still has “plenty of surprises in store.”
Earlier that day, Variety reported that 17 months after acquiring the masters to Swift’s first six albums, Braun’s Ithaca Holdings LLC sold them for $300 million to an investment fund. That’s the same amount the company originally paid to purchase the entirety of Big Machine Label Group, the Nashville record company Swift was previously signed to before joining Universal Music Group. After the news broke, the pop star tweeted out a lengthy statement about the transaction, writing, “Been getting a lot of questions about the recent sale of my old masters. I hope this clears things up.”
In the open letter, the singer explains that while her team “attempted to enter into negotiations with Scooter Braun” his team allegedly demanded that she first sign an NDA stating she “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). 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 goes on to say that she recently received a letter from Shamrock Holdings, a private equity company, that let her know they’d purchase 100% of her music, videos, and album art, and while they wanted to let her know about the deal one of the conditions of the sale was that “they make no contact with me or my team, or the deal would be off.” Swift also learned that under the terms of the sale Braun will continue to profit off of her music for years to come. Initially, she was hopeful she could form a partnership with Shamrock, “but Scooter’s participation is a non-starter for me.”
But the pop star assured her fans that despite all these legal complications, she hasn’t given up hope just yet. “I have recently begun re-recording my older music and it has already proven to be both exciting and creatively fulfilling,” Swift shared. “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. I love you guys and I’m just gonna keep cruising, as they say.”
A representative for Scooter Braun was not immediately available for comment.
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