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Taylor Swift is not happy with the sale of her former label, Big Machine Label Group, to mega-manager Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings.
Braun’s $300 million acquisition of the Nashville-based label is being financed by the Carlyle Group (CG), which took a minority stake in Ithaca in 2017. With Carlyle’s backing, Ithaca is estimated to be worth around $800 million.
In a Tumblr post, Swift cites years of “incessant, manipulative bullying” at the hands of Braun as the reason she is upset with his taking control of her six-album catalog under Big Machine. But that is a moot point, according to one industry expert.
“She doesn’t like that Scooter Braun will now control the destiny of her back catalogue, but that wasn’t her decision to make,” Larry Miller, director of the music business program at NYU’s Steinhardt School, told Yahoo Finance.
“Fundamentally, here is the trade that artists make who sign a traditional record deal,” Miller added. “In return for taking the risk of signing — whether they’re a new artist or an established artist — the label retains control of sound recordings under that agreement. The artist’s work becomes the property of the label.”
Braun manages a slate of popular artists including Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber. He also managed Kanye West at the time the rapper and Swift clashed over West’s portrayal of her in the lyrics and the music video for the 2016 song “Famous.”
Swift directly cites the way West, Kim Kardashian West, Bieber, and Braun treated her during this time in her Tumblr post, which also compared the acquisition deal with her “worst nightmares.”
Swift had ‘every opportunity’ to get masters back
In 2018, Swift’s label agreement with Big Machine was set to expire, and the singer told label president Scott Borchetta she would be exploring other companies. Swift ultimately settled on Universal Music Group’s Republic Records (VIVHY). For the extent of her original contract, Universal acted as distributor for BMLG, so the company was already familiar with Swift’s body of work Miller points out.
The singer writes that she “learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world,” and went on to list what she claims are instances of bullying perpetuated by his clients. Including a phone call that Kardashian West recorded that appears to feature Swift signing off on “Famous.”
Borchetta pushed back on the claim that Swift was unaware of the deal, which was first reported on by the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
In a blog post, Borchetta writes that he extended the courtesy of giving Swift a heads up about the deal with Braun via text. Similarly, he says Swift gave him the same courtesy prior to announcing her deal with UMG. Borchetta also claimed Swift’s father Scott was aware of the deal, having taken part in a shareholders’ call last week. Swift’s representatives have refuted this, claiming the father did not want to have information he would have to withhold from his daughter.