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Taylor Swift has been in a public battle with Scooter Braun over her masters since the summer of 2019. Starting this month, Swift is able to start re-recording her masters, but that’s not the only recent news about her music catalog.
This week, Swift took to Twitter, announcing that Braun had recently sold her masters to an unknown investment fund, explaining that she again did not have the option to buy them from him without effectively silencing herself in the future.
Check out her tweet here.
Been getting a lot of questions about the recent sale of my old masters. I hope this clears things up. pic.twitter.com/sscKXp2ibD
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) November 16, 2020
Keep reading for exactly what Swift had to say–and what it means for her music.
In Swift's statement, she details her role (or lack thereof) in the recent sale of her masters, despite her attempts to buy them for herself.
She wrote, "Scooter's team wanted me to sign an ironclad NDA stating I 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," Swift added.
That's not the only thing Swift revealed in her post.
She 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% of my music, videos, and album art from Scooter Braun. This was the second time my music had been sold without my knowledge."
According to Swift, a requirement of their deal was that they could not let Swift know ahead of time about the sale of her masters: "Scooter Braun had required that they make no contact with me or my team, or the deal would be off."
Additionally, with this new deal, Braun will continue to profit off of Swift's masters, which has led Swift to decide not to work with Shamrock Holdings.
In a letter to the investment fund, Taylor wrote, "I cannot currently entertain being partners with you...this is a sacrifice I have to make to keep Scooter Braun out of my life. I'm very sorry he put you in this position."
There is some good news for Swift though despite this disappointing update about her masters.
She gave her fans an exciting update about her re-recordings, adding to her statement, "I have recently begun re-recording my older music and it has already proven to be both exciting and creatively fulfilling. I have plenty of surprises in store... I can't wait for you to hear what I've been dreaming up."
It's fair to say that Taylor's fans can't wait either, and although the singer might have been disappointed by this most recent news, she definitely has exciting things coming up soon.
