Scooter Braun Addresses Taylor Swift’s Re-Recordings, Says He Disagrees With ‘Weaponizing a Fanbase’

Scooter Braun got honest in a recent interview about Taylor Swift and her fans.

In an interview with Ari Melber for MSNBC’s The Beat, Scooter Braun mentioned acquiring Swift’s masters and how he doesn’t like musicians “weaponizing” their fanbase.

“The person who owned Taylor’s masters throughout her career was not myself,” Braun said in the interview. “When I was buying a record label, I actually said to that group, ‘If at any point she wants to come back and be a part of this conversation, please let me know because I wouldn’t do this deal.'”

He added, “I was shown an email – which has now been made public – where she stated that she wanted to move on that negotiation and wasn’t interested in doing that deal anymore.”

Braun later said that “Taylor has every right to re-record,” adding, “She has every right to pursue her masters, and I wish her nothing but well, and I have zero interest in saying anything bad about her.”

The music manager, who has worked with Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, and Demi Lovato, also mentioned that although he has “never said anything bad about [Swift] in the past, and I won’t start to now,” the only thing he condemns is “weaponizing a fanbase.”

His publicized feud with Taylor made headlines in June 2019 when Taylor released a social media post alleging that her previous label, Big Machine Label Group, had deprived her of the right to own her music by purchasing her masters. She said that Big Machine CEO Scott Borchetta and the label would only allow her to “earn” one master back for each album she released, so she chose to leave.

Scooter Braun acquired her masters via his company Ithaca Holdings by acquiring Big Machine.

“When I left my masters in Scott’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them,” Taylor wrote in her Tumblr post. “Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter.”

Scooter said in a recent MSNBC interview that he tried to negotiate with Taylor before acquiring her masters, but when she joined Universal Music Group, he felt the deal was off the table and proceeded with the purchase of Big Machine.

He eventually sold her masters to Shamrock Holdings for an estimated $300 million in November 2020.

In a statement at the time, Taylor said she wanted to buy her masters back from Scooter, but his team “wanted me to sign an ironclad NDA stating I would never say another word about Scooter Braun unless it was positive” before going through with the deal.

Taylor posted on social media at the time, “This was the second time my music has been sold without my knowledge. “The letter told me that they wanted to reach out before the sale to let me know, but that Scooter Braun had required that they make no contact with me or my team, or the deal would be off.”

Ultimately, Taylor decided to re-record her first six albums with Universal in order to own those records. The Grammy winner has so far released Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version).