Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun’s Feud: A Timeline

It was introduced on June 30, 2019, that Braun’s Ithaca Holdings agreed to amass Borchetta’s Massive Machine Label Group in a blockbuster deal backed by the huge world funding agency the Carlyle Group. The deal topped $300 million and likewise included Massive Machine Music, the music publishing operation.

“The thought of Scott and I working collectively is nothing new, we’ve been speaking about it for the reason that starting of our friendship,” Braun mentioned in an announcement. “I reached out to him after I noticed a chance and, after many conversations, realized our visions have been aligned. He’s constructed an excellent firm filled with iconic songs and artists. Who wouldn’t wish to be part of that? By becoming a member of collectively, we’ll create extra alternatives for artists than ever earlier than, by giving them the assist and instruments to go after no matter goals they want to pursue.”

The deal was financed by the Carlyle Group’s Carlyle Companions VI Fund, alongside Braun and Ithaca Holdings. The corporate additionally introduced that Carlyle would stay a minority shareholder in Ithaca and proceed to assist the mixed firm’s development technique with Carlyle Group world client, media and retail group head Jay Sammons remaining on Ithaca’s board. Borchetta would purchase a minority curiosity in Ithaca and be part of its board whereas remaining president and CEO of BMLG.

The label beforehand misplaced Swift to Common Music Group’s Republic Data in 2018, however nonetheless retained her catalog. Different artists on their roster on the time included Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett, Reba McEntire, Rascal Flatts, Brantley Gilbert, Girl Antebellum, Low cost Trick and Jennifer Nettles.

In a letter posted to Tumblr shortly after the announcement, the megastar outlined why she was so upset with the brand new growth. She mentioned that she realized of the deal “because it was introduced to the world,” however in line with a Billboard supply, her group had identified concerning the acquisition since June 25, 2019, when Massive Machine held a shareholders assembly to debate the deal.

Her father, Scott Swift, additionally owns a small stake in Massive Machine (about 4%). Braun is shopping for out his stake, in addition to these of different minority shareholders.

Swift went on to share that the deal made her revisit all the occasions she was allegedly bullied by Braun and his shoppers. “Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a telephone name to be leaked after which Scooter bought his two shoppers collectively to bully me on-line about it,” she mentioned. “Or when his consumer, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my physique bare. Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given a chance to purchase. Basically, my musical legacy is about to lie within the palms of somebody who tried to dismantle it.”

She additionally went on to query Borchetta’s loyalty, saying that he knew how Swift felt about Braun.

The Massive Machine label founder/CEO penned a letter titled, “So, It’s Time for Some Fact,” additionally posted June 30, 2019. He shared that he texted Swift the evening earlier than the deal went public: “I suppose it’d by some means be potential that her dad Scott, 13 Administration lawyer Jay Schaudies (who represented Scott Swift on the shareholder calls) or 13 Administration govt and Massive Machine LLC shareholder Frank Bell (who was on the shareholder calls) didn’t say something to Taylor over the prior 5 days. I suppose it’s potential that she won’t have seen my textual content. However, I actually doubt that she ‘woke as much as the information when everybody else did.’”

Borchetta additionally disputed Swift’s declare that he’d proposed she “‘earn’ one album [master] again at a time, one for each new one [she] turned in.” “100% of all Taylor Swift belongings have been to be transferred to her instantly upon signing the brand new settlement,” he wrote, sharing a scan of a response to a proposal between Swift’s administration group and her lawyer Don Passman, named “TS Proposal” and dated Aug. 15, 2018. Within the doc, BMLG agreed that “Upon execution [of a new contract], BMLG shall assign to TS all recordings (audio and/or visible), paintings, pictures and some other supplies referring to TS which BMLG owns or controls.” Swift’s group was asking for a brand new seven-year contract, whereas BMLG wished a 10-year deal.

He additionally responded to Swift’s remark about preventing again tears each time Braun’s title was introduced up: “Was I conscious of some prior points between Taylor and [Braun client] Justin Bieber? Sure….Scooter was by no means something however optimistic about Taylor.”

Demi Lovato took to her Instagram Story on July 1, 2019, to defend Braun (“I’m all the time gonna keep loyal to my group”), as did his most well-known long-term consumer, Bieber, whom Swift had additionally known as out in her Tumblr put up for “bullying” her with Braun through a put up on the “Child” singer’s Instagram.

Bieber’s put up on June 30, 2019, began off as an apology to Swift: “To begin with i want to apologize for posting that hurtful instagram put up, on the time i believed it was humorous however trying again it was distasteful and insensitive,” he wrote within the caption of a throwback photograph.

He additionally took full accountability and confused that Braun “didn’t have something to do with it and it wasn’t even part of the dialog in all actuality he was the one that instructed me to not joke like that.” However because the put up went on, Bieber started to accuse Swift of the bullying. “Because the years have handed we haven’t crossed paths and gotten to speak our variations, hurts or frustrations. So so that you can take it to social media and get folks to hate on scooter isn’t truthful. What have been you making an attempt to perform by posting that weblog? appears to me prefer it was to get sympathy u additionally knew that in posting that your followers would go and bully scooter.”

Different celebrities spoke out in Swift’s favor. For one, Halsey posted a heartfelt word sharing her viewpoint: “Taylor Swift is a large cause why I all the time insisted to write down my very own music. I believed if she did it (in a means that made my tooth ache like chilly water and my coronary heart swell and my eyes leak) than I ought to too. Trigger that’s how one can make somebody really feel. To tug it from the pits of your coronary heart. To supply it on a platter and say ‘take some however take kindly.’ She deserves to personal the painstaking labor of her coronary heart.”

“It turns my guts that regardless of how a lot energy or success a lady has on this life, you might be nonetheless prone to somebody coming alongside and making you’re feeling powerless out of spite,” she continued. “It speaks volumes to how far we’ve got to come back within the music business.”

Corridor additionally responded, accusing Braun of being “an evil one that’s solely concern is his wealth and feeding his disgusting ego.” He went on to say, “I imagine he’s homophobic & I do know from his personal mouth that he’s not a Swift fan.”

Kahn, a frequent director of Swift’s music movies, added: “I really feel horrible for Taylor. That is the report enterprise at it’s most ruthless and shady. She is genuinely one of many nicest folks ever and doesn’t deserve this. She ought to personal her work.”

Yael Cohen, who was married to Braun on the time (the couple divorced in 2021), took to Instagram June 30, 2019, to defend her husband: “Your dad is a shareholder and was notified, and Borchetta personally instructed you this earlier than it got here out. So no, you didn’t discover out with the world.”

She went on to deal with Swift’s bullying remark, “Lady, who’re you to speak about bullying? The world has watched you accumulate and drop pals like wilted flowers. My husband is something however a bully, he’s spent his life standing up for folks and causes he believes in.”

A spokesperson for Swift denied that her father Scott knew of the deal upfront, telling Individuals, “Scott Swift just isn’t on the board of administrators and has by no means been. On June 25, there was a shareholder telephone name that Scott Swift didn’t take part in because of a really strict NDA that certain all shareholders and prohibited any dialogue in any respect with out threat of extreme penalty.”

Swift’s lawyer, Don Passman, stepped into the battle with an announcement on July 2: “Scott Borchetta by no means gave Taylor Swift a chance to buy her masters, or the label, outright with a verify in the best way he’s now apparently doing for others.”

Passman nearly by no means feedback on artists’ offers, so it was an uncommon transfer for him to talk out on the case in any respect. He declined to remark past the assertion to Billboard.

Regardless of the back-and-forth concerning Swift’s masters, Braun took a second to congratulate the singer on the discharge of her seventh studio album, Lover. “No matter what has been mentioned the reality is you don’t make huge bets except you’re a believer and all the time have been,” he tweeted. “Good album with #Lover. Congrats @taylorswift13.”

In an unique interview with CBS This Morning to advertise Lover, her first album with Republic Data, Swift introduced a plan to avoid Braun’s buy of her masters altogether by re-recording every of her first six albums. Through the sit-down, she additionally shaded Borchetta’s option to promote her masters to Braun, saying, “I knew he would promote my music, I knew he would try this. I couldn’t imagine who he bought it to. As a result of we’ve had infinite conversations about Scooter Braun, and he has 300 million causes to conveniently neglect these conversations.”

After months of simmering rigidity, Swift’s dispute with Braun and Borchetta reached a brand new stage on forward of the 2019 American Music Awards. In a viral put up throughout her social media platforms, the celebrity accused Braun and her former label boss of refusing to permit her to make use of any songs from her again catalog in her efficiency on the award present, the place she was set to be honored as artist of the last decade. Moreover, Swift claimed the 2 males have been denying use of her older hits in a beforehand unannounced Netflix documentary about her life, and claimed “some other recorded occasions I’m planning to play till November of 2020 are a query mark.”

In an unsigned press launch posted to their web site shortly after Swift’s assertion, the singer’s former label refuted her claims. Massive Machine denied conserving her from performing on the AMAs or blocking the Netlfix particular — with out immediately addressing the usage of her previous hits in both — and fired again an allegation that Swift “has admitted to contractually owing thousands and thousands of {dollars} and a number of belongings to our firm.”

Halsey, Selena Gomez, Gigi Hadid and extra friends and friends of Swift as soon as once more took to social media to face by her. “My coronary heart is so heavy write now,” Gomez posted on Instagram. “It makes me sick and intensely offended. (I [don’t] thoughts if there could also be retaliation) that is my opinion. It’s greed, manipulation and energy.”

“That is simply imply. That is punishment. That is hoping to silence her from talking about issues by dangling this over her head,” Halsey wrote on her Story, whereas Hadid acknowledged, “Scott and Scooter, you recognize what the best factor to do is — Taylor and her followers need to rejoice the music!!”

Swift’s publicist, Tree Paine, promptly issued an announcement doubling down on Swift’s declare that Borchetta “flatly denied the request for each American Music Awards and Netflix” earlier than including, “Please discover in Massive Machine’s assertion, they by no means truly deny both declare Taylor mentioned final evening in her put up.”

Paine’s assertion additionally accused Swift’s former label of “making an attempt to deflect and make this about cash” and retaliated by sustaining that “knowledgeable auditor has decided that Massive Machine owes Taylor $7.9 million {dollars} of unpaid royalties over a number of years.”

Although Swift was not talked about by title, a consultant for Massive Machine mentioned in a assertion to Billboard that the corporate has “agreed to grant all licenses of their artists’ performances to stream put up present and for re-broadcast on mutually authorised platforms.”

“It needs to be famous that recording artists don’t want label approval for dwell performances on tv or some other dwell media,” the assertion continues. “Document label approval is simply wanted for contracted artists’ audio and visible recordings and in figuring out how these works are distributed.”

Swift went on to carry out various her previous songs on the AMAs, together with “Love Story,” “I Knew You Had been Bother” and “Shake It Off.” She seemingly alluded to her possession battle by sporting a males’s button-down printed with the names of her first six album titles at first of her efficiency, singing a snippet of “The Man.”

In an open letter to Swift posted on Instagram, Braun revealed that he and his household had obtained “quite a few dying threats” for the reason that pop star’s assertion concerning the AMAs. “I assume this was not your intention however it will be significant that you just perceive that your phrases carry an amazing quantity of weight and that your message could be interpreted by some in numerous methods,” he continued within the put up. “Whereas disenchanted that you’ve remained silent after being notified by your lawyer 4 days in the past of those ongoing threats, I’m nonetheless hopeful we will repair this.”

Throughout her Girl of the Decade interview with Billboard, Swift mentioned, “Each week, we get a dozen synch requests to make use of ‘Shake It Off’ in some commercial or ‘Clean Area’ in some film trailer, and we are saying no to each single considered one of them. And the rationale I’m rerecording my music subsequent yr is as a result of I do need my music to dwell on. I do need it to be in films, I do need it to be in commercials. However I solely need that if I personal it.”

“It’s going to be enjoyable, as a result of it’ll really feel like regaining a freedom and taking again what’s mine,” she mentioned of the re-recording course of. “Once I created [these songs], I didn’t know what they might develop as much as be. Going again in and understanding that it meant one thing to folks is definitely a very lovely strategy to rejoice what the followers have finished for my music.”

Whereas accepting the Girl of the Decade honors at Billboard‘s Ladies in Music occasion, Swift touched on her feud with Braun. “Currently there’s been a brand new shift that has affected me personally and that I really feel is a probably dangerous pressure in our business, and as your resident loud particular person, I really feel the necessity to deliver it up,” she mentioned on the ceremony. “And that’s the unregulated world of personal fairness coming in and shopping for up our music as whether it is actual property. As if it’s an app or a shoe line. This simply occurred to me with out my approval, session, or consent.

After I used to be denied the prospect to buy my music outright, my complete catalog was bought to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings in a deal that I’m instructed was funded by the Soros Household, 23 Capital, and the Carlyle Group. But to at the present time none of those buyers have ever bothered to contact me or my group immediately. To carry out their due diligence on their funding. On their funding in me. To ask how I would really feel concerning the new proprietor of my artwork. The music I wrote. The movies I created. Images of me, my handwriting, my album designs. And naturally, Scooter by no means contacted me or my group to debate it previous to the sale and even when it was introduced.

I’m pretty sure he knew precisely how I’d really feel about it although. And let me simply say that the definition of the poisonous male privilege in our business is folks saying, ‘However he’s all the time been good to me,’ after I’m elevating legitimate considerations about artists and their rights to personal their music. And naturally he’s good to you. If you happen to’re on this room, you may have one thing he wants.

The very fact is that non-public fairness is what enabled this man to suppose, in line with his personal social media put up, that he may purchase me. However I’m clearly not going willingly. But probably the most wonderful factor was to find that it might be the ladies in our business who would have my again and present me probably the most vocal assist at one of the crucial troublesome occasions, and I’ll by no means, ever neglect it. Like, ever.”

Utilizing a number of barometers employed by music business buyers, Billboard estimated in February 2020 that the value of Swift’s first six albums was wherever from $400 million to $450 million, roughly double what Braun paid for them three months prior.

In April 2020, Swift knowledgeable her followers through Instagram tales that her “former label is placing out an ‘album’ of dwell performances of mine tonight.”

“I’m all the time trustworthy with you guys about these things so I simply wished to let you know that this launch just isn’t authorised by me,” Swift continued of the undertaking, Stay From Clear Channel Stripped 2008. “It appears to be like to me like Scooter Braun and his monetary backers, 23 Capital, Alex Soros and the Soros household and The Carlyle Group have seen the most recent steadiness sheets and realized that paying $330 MILLION for my music wasn’t precisely a smart selection and so they want cash.

“For my part…Simply one other case of shameless greed within the time of Coronavirus,” the star concluded. “So tasteless, however very clear.”

Ye, on the time nonetheless often called Kanye West, went on a tweeting spree in September 2020 proclaiming that “all artists have to be free” and referring to the music business as “modern-day slavery.”

He then introduced Swift’s dispute with Braun into the dialogue. “I’M GOING TO PERSONALLY SEE TO IT THAT TAYLOR SWIFT GETS HER MASTERS BACK. SCOOTER IS A CLOSE FAMILY FRIEND,” the rapper tweeted.

In August 2019, Swift instructed Good Morning America‘s Robin Roberts when precisely she’d have the ability to begin legally rerecording her previous music. “Yeah, that’s true and it’s one thing that I’m very enthusiastic about doing, as a result of my contract says that beginning November 2020 — so subsequent yr — I can report albums one via 5 once more,” she mentioned on the time. “I’m very enthusiastic about it. I simply suppose that artists need to personal their very own work. I simply really feel very passionately about that.”

Positive sufficient, on the primary day of November 2020, Swifties took to social media to rejoice with the hashtag #TaylorIsFree.

In line with a word Swift posted to Twitter on Nov. 16, 2020, and confirmed to Billboard by a supply, Shamrock Holdings bought the star’s Massive Machine Label Group catalog from Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings. The sale marked the second time in 17 months possession over Swift’s first six albums had modified palms.

Swift posted to X that after Braun determined to promote her masters, his “group” had requested her to signal a non-disclosure settlement earlier than she may even “bid on [her] personal work.” “My authorized group mentioned that that is completely not regular, and so they’re by no means seen an NDA like this offered except it was to silence an assault accuser by paying them off,” she added on the time. “He would by no means even quote my group a worth. These grasp recordings weren’t on the market to me.”

She additionally wrote that she’d initially been open to a partnership with Shamrock after the sale went via, however finally determined in opposition to it after studying that Braun would “proceed to revenue off my previous musical catalog for a few years” below the brand new phrases. “Scooter’s participation is a non-starter for me,” she added in her put up.

On April 9, 2021 — almost two years after Swift first known as out Braun for the sale of her masters — the pop star dropped Fearless (Taylor’s Model), the primary of her six deliberate re-records. Full with never-before-heard Vault tracks and collaborations with different artists, the undertaking was a large success and ended up topping the Billboard 200 for 2 weeks.

“This course of has been extra fulfilling and emotional than I may’ve imagined and has made me much more decided to re-record all of my music,” she wrote in a word to followers previous to the album’s launch. “I hope you’ll like this primary outing as a lot as I preferred touring again in time to recreate it.”

In June 2021, Braun mirrored on the rapid aftermath of his acquisition of Swift’s catalog in an interview with Selection. “I remorse and it makes me unhappy that Taylor had that response to the deal,” he instructed the publication. “All of what occurred has been very complicated and never based mostly on something factual.”

“I don’t know what story she was instructed,” he continued. “I requested for her to take a seat down with me a number of occasions, however she refused. I provided to promote her the catalog again and went below NDA, however her group refused. All of it appears very unlucky. Open communication is essential and may result in understanding. She and I solely met briefly three or 4 occasions previously, and all our interactions have been actually pleasant and sort. I discover her to be an extremely gifted artist and want her nothing however one of the best.”

Swift quickly adopted up Fearless with Pink (Taylor’s Model) in November 2021. Along with topping the Billboard 200, the undertaking earned Swift her eighth No. 1 hit on the Scorching 100 with “All Too Nicely (10 Minute Model),” which additionally set a report by dethroning Don McLean’s “American Pie” for longest tune to prime the chart.

Braun once more mirrored on his dispute with Swift in a 2022 interview with MSNBC. “Once I was shopping for [Big Machine], I truly mentioned to that group, ‘If at any level [Swift] desires to come back again and be part of this dialog, please let me know, as a result of I wouldn’t do that deal,’” he mentioned. “I used to be proven an electronic mail — which has now been made public now — the place she acknowledged that she wished to maneuver on that negotiation and wasn’t excited by doing that deal anymore.”

The mogul later continued, “I feel Taylor has each proper to re-record. She has each proper to pursue her masters, and I want her nothing however properly, and I’ve zero curiosity in saying something unhealthy about her. I’ve by no means mentioned something unhealthy about her previously, and I gained’t begin to now. The one factor I disagree with is weaponizing a fanbase.”

Whereas chatting with NPR in September 2022, Braun opened up concerning the “essential lesson” his expertise with Massive Machine and Swift taught him: “I can’t put myself in a spot of, you recognize, conceitedness to suppose that somebody would simply be prepared to have a dialog and be excited to work with me,” he mentioned.

The entrepreneur went on to emphasise how essential it has been for him for the reason that debacle with Swift to verify he has conversations with everybody concerned forward of main enterprise strikes — one thing he says he didn’t have the prospect to do when buying Massive Machine, as he was below a strict NDA that forbade him from contacting any of the artists on the label’s roster earlier than the sale.

“The remorse I’ve there may be that I made the idea that everybody, as soon as the deal was finished, was going to have a dialog with me, see my intent, see my character and say, nice, let’s be in enterprise collectively,” Braun added to NPR. “And I made that assumption with folks that I didn’t know.”

The third album in Swift’s discography grew to become her third re-release on July 7, 2023, with the pop star unveiling Converse Now (Taylor’s Model) a pair months after asserting it at an Eras Tour present. The LP spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

When Swift dropped 1989 (Taylor’s Model) in October 2023, it shortly grew to become her most profitable re-record thus far. Spending six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the LP was the star’s first to outperform its unique counterpart in first-week gross sales, taking dwelling 1,359 million compared to 1989‘s 1.287 million in 2014.

Whereas chatting with TIME for her 2023 Individual of the Yr interview, Swift mentioned that her dispute with Braun was considered one of two springboards for the place her profession is now (the opposite being her feud with Ye and Kim Kardashian).

“With the Scooter factor, my masters have been being bought to somebody who actively wished them for nefarious causes, in my view,” she instructed the publication on the time. “I used to be so knocked on my a– by the sale of my music, and to whom it was bought. I used to be like, ‘Oh, they bought me beat now. That is it. I don’t know what to do.’”

Swift additionally described the scenario with Braun has “having my life’s work taken away from me by somebody who hates me.” “My response to something that occurs, good or unhealthy, is to maintain making issues,” she added. “Maintain making artwork … However I’ve additionally realized there’s no level in actively making an attempt to cite unquote defeat your enemies. Trash takes itself out each single time.”

5 years after their feud first exploded into the general public eye, Braun turned some heads by posting about Swift on his Instagram Story. Sharing a TMZ article concerning the pop star’s seaside trip with boyfriend Travis Kelce, Blake Full of life and Ryan Reynolds, the businessman wrote, “How was I not invited to this?!? #laughalittle.”

Simply earlier than that, he additionally posted about watching Max’s documentary about their feud — Taylor Swift vs Scooter Braun: Unhealthy Blood — which had premiered two months prior. “I lastly watched it…,” he merely wrote, sharing a screenshot of the undertaking’s poster.

“You’d suppose after his earlier posts about her he’d be taught by now,” an business supply instructed Billboard of Braun’s exercise on the time. “It’s like he’s obsessed.”

After Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for the 2024 presidential election, Republican opponent Donald Trump wrote on Fact Social, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT.”

In response, Braun reshared the twice-impeached ex-POTUS’ put up on Instagram Tales and wrote, “Shake it off Donald … Kamala 2024.”

In the end, Swift was in a position to purchase again the masters to her first six albums, buying them from Shamrock Capital nearly 5 years after the agency first purchased them from Braun. Revealing the information in a letter on her web site, the singer known as it her “biggest dream come true” and famous that she felt “endlessly grateful” to Shamrock for the way negotiations have been dealt with.

“I’m making an attempt to collect my ideas into one thing coherent, however proper now my thoughts is only a slideshow,” she additionally wrote. “A flashback sequence of all of the occasions I daydreamed about, wished for, and pined away for an opportunity to get to let you know this information. All of the occasions I used to be thiiiiiiiis shut, reaching out for it, just for it to fall via. I nearly stopped considering it may ever occur, after 20 years of getting the carrot dangled after which yanked away. However that’s all previously now.”