Scooter Braun at the ‘Our World’ screening on Sept 14, 2021 and Taylor Swift at the MTV VMAs on Sept 11, 2024. Photo:
Gregory Pace/Shutterstock; Gotham/WireImage
Former music manager Scooter Braun wants to put the past behind him after stirring controversy for acquiring Taylor Swift‘s masters in 2019.
At the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles on Thursday, Oct. 10, Braun revealed he finally watched the Max docuseries chronicling their conflict, Taylor Swift vs Scooter Braun: Bad Blood.
“I wasn’t going to watch it because I just thought it was going to be, like, another hit piece,” the 43-year-old music executive said. “I pretty much stayed quiet about this kind of stuff. And my dad called me and my mom, and they were like, we just watched it. We think you should watch it. So I did.”
Scooter Braun at the Bloomberg Screentime event on Thursday, Oct. 10. Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty
Braun says “a lot of things that were misrepresented” in the doc, and he wants to finally put the feud to bed, saying, “Look, it’s five years later. I think, everyone, it’s time to move on.”
“I think that it’s important in any kind of conflict that people actually communicate directly with each other. I think doing it out on social media and in front of the whole world is not the place. And I think when people actually take the time to stand in front of each other have a conversation, they usually find out the monster’s not real, and that hasn’t happened.”
After Swift’s Big Machine Label Group contract expired in 2018, the singer signed a deal with Universal Music Group-owned Republic Records. In 2019, Braun became the owner of Swift’s catalog after his company Ithaca Holdings acquired her former label from CEO Scott Borchetta in a $330 million sale. Big Machine released Swift’s self-titled debut album in 2006 up to 2017’s Reputation.
Upon learning of the sale, Swift, 34, shared a lengthy Tumblr post about her time at Big Machine, writing that she tried “for years” to acquire her masters. “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,” she wrote. “I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future.”
Braun sold the masters again in 2020, this time to private equity firm Shamrock Capital. “This was the second time my music had been sold without my knowledge,” Swift wrote on X (formerly Twitter). She claimed Braun would only let the deal proceed if Swift and her team wouldn’t be contacted, and he will still profit from her recordings. The “Love Story” singer went on to announce she would be re-recording her albums, eventually dubbed as “Taylor’s Versions.”
Taylor Swift performing in London, England on June 21, 2024. Kevin Mazur/Getty
In June, Braun announced in an Instagram post that he would retire from management after 23 years. He will retain his position as CEO of HYBE America.
Prior to his retirement, Braun’s clients included Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Carly Rae Jepsen, Kanye West, and more.
