Three years after buying master rights to Taylor Swift’s early music, Scooter Braun says he wishes the deal had gone differently.
On Wednesday, the music mogul chatted with Jay Williams for NPR’s “The Limits With Jay Williams.” During the nearly 40-minute chat, Braun recalled acquiring Big Machine, Swift’s former label, and his master recordings through that purchase. The 2019 acquisition then evolved into a larger public dispute that sparked a conversation about ownership and rights within the music industry.
When Williams asked Braun if he would come back in time for a rework of this acquisition, Braun replied “Yes”.
“I learned an important lesson from it,” he said.
Braun, who merged his Ithaca Holdings with BTS label owner HYBE for $1 billion in 2021, said there was a lack of communication between him, Big Machine and his roster of artists.
“I was under a very strict NDA with the gentleman who owned it, and I couldn’t tell any artists. I wasn’t allowed to, I wasn’t legally allowed to,” he said. “What I said to him was, ‘Hey, if any of the artists want to come back and join this, you gotta let me know. “”
The longtime manager, who has worked with the likes of Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, said he was “excited to work with the artists on the label” and started calling musicians. It was just before “all hell broke loose,” he said.
The same day Braun’s acquisition of Big Machine was official, Swift called the deal “my worst-case scenario.” In a Tumblr post, Swift slammed Braun for “the relentless and manipulative bullying I suffered from him for years.”
“Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, which I haven’t had the opportunity to buy,” she wrote. “Essentially, my musical legacy is about to end up in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”
Looking back on Swift’s response in 2022, Braun said he thinks “a lot got lost in translation.”
“I think when you have a conflict with someone, it’s very difficult to resolve it if you’re not willing to have a conversation,” he added. “So the regret I have there is that I assumed that everyone, once the deal was done, was going to have a conversation with me, see my intent, see my character and say, ” Great. Let’s do business together.’”
Braun said he learned the “important lesson” of not assuming artists would be fully ready to collaborate.
“I can’t put myself in a position of arrogance to think that someone would just be willing to have a conversation, would be happy to work with me,” he said. “I don’t know these people.”
Three years after the 2019 dispute with Swift, Braun said he “didn’t appreciate how it all happened” and added that he saw how unfair the situation was for both sides.
“I choose to look at it as a lesson in learning, a lesson in growth, and I wish everyone involved the best of luck,” he said. “I’m rooting for everyone to win because I don’t believe in rooting for people to lose.”
Swift alleged that Braun intimidated her by Bieber and former client Kanye West and their social media posts, and by leaking sensitive information. Braun told Variety last year that Swift’s reaction was “very confusing and not based on anything factual.”
Since losing her master recordings to Braun, Swift has embarked on a campaign to re-record her catalog. Since the 2019 drama, she released “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version).”
