Are you over hearing about the bad blood between Scooter Braun and Taylor Swift? Well, according to Braun, no one’s more over it than the man who purchased Swift’s masters himself.
During an appearance at the Bloomberg Screentime event in Hollywood on Oct. 10, Braun spoke about his feelings after watching the new Max documentary covering the feud between the two, Taylor Swift vs. Scooter Braun: Bad Blood and how he thinks it’s “time to move on.”
Speaking to the event’s audience, Braun said, “It’s five years later. I think, everyone, it’s time to move on. There were a lot of things that were misrepresented.” He spoke of his regret over handling the conversation about Swift’s masters on social media rather than in private: “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 and have a conversation, they usually find out the monster’s not real.” He confirmed that a face-to-face conversation with Swit “has not happened.”
While it’s possible Braun does want to move on, Swifties already have. The only thing they want now is for Braun to keep “her name out of his mouth,” according to several posts on X about the topic. “Can he stop mentioning Taylor Swift… wdc what he has to talk about,” wrote one Swift fan account, echoing the sentiment of numerous fans fed up with Braun. “The same guy who bought Taylor’s masters without her consent? Yeah, right. ‘Communicating directly’ is exactly what he didn’t do. The ‘monster’ is real, Scooter, and it’s you,” wrote another fan.
In 2019, Braun’s Ithaca Holdings purchased Swift’s longtime label Big Machine Records along with Swift’s masters as part of a $300 million deal. Swift, who left Big Machine Records for Universal Music Group in 2018, shared her frustrations on Tumblr and claimed she was unaware Braun purchased her masters until “it was announced to the world.” In her post, she wrote that Braun had been responsible for “incessant, manipulative bullying” throughout her career and that she hoped “young artists or kids with musical dreams will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation. You deserve to own the art you make.”
Swift famously began re-recording her old albums shortly after, beginning with Love Story (Taylor’s Version) in 2021. At the time, Braun supported the effort: “I think Taylor has every right to re-record. She has every right to pursue her masters,” he told MSNBC. “And I wish her nothing but well, and I have zero interest in saying anything bad about her. The only thing I disagree with is weaponizing a fanbase.”
Braun has expressed regret for how the purchase was handled, whether out of genuine regret or fear of Swifties. In 2022, he told NPR that he “wasn’t legally allowed to … tell any artist” of his plans to purchase Big Machine Records thanks to “a very strict NDA.” “The regret I have,” he said at the time, “ is that I made the assumption that everyone, once the deal was done, was going to have a conversation with me … and say, great, let’s be in business together.”
After he sold Taylor’s masters to the private equity company, Shamrock Holdings, in late 2020, it’s unlikely the two will have a working relationship going forward. Swift claimed the sale was made without her knowledge and that she was given no opportunity to buy her masters back unless she signed an NDA “stating [she] would never say another word about Scooter Braun unless it was positive.” And, as should be obvious, there’s no way she would ever agree to that.
Published: Oct 15, 2024 03:42 am