Taylor Swift has reacted to the reported sale of her master recordings by Scooter Braun to a private equity company for over $300million.
The Grammy awards winner confirmed that the sale of her master recordings went down in October with a firm revealed by her to be Shamrock Holdings, and that, as would be expected, she is deeply unhappy with the second sale of her master recordings without her consent or involvement in a year and a half.
Taking to her official Twitter handle on Monday, Taylor Swift tweeted saying, that she was alerted to the October sale by Shamrock Holdings itself, only after the deal had already gone through. And they only reached out with hopes of working with her on the catalog in the future. While Swift maintains that she was open to that, she quickly nixed any future collaboration when she learned that Braun will contractually continue to profit from her work, even after the sale.
As for whether she ever had a chance to place her own bid on her master recordings, as she has asserted for the last year and a half she should have the right to do, Swift revealed that Braun’s reps had let her know the catalog was for sale. But, Swift said, she was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement stipulating that she would never again disparage Braun before even being allowed to examine Big Machine’s books or make an offer.
She said: “my team attempted to enter into negotiations with Scooter Braun. 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.”
She said negotiations never got underway, because of the strict NDA demands. “He would never even quote my team a price. These master recordings were not for sale to me,” she concluded.
Then, she wrote, “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. 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.”
Before she learned that Braun would continue to profit from her catalog, “I was hopeful and open to the possibility of a partnership with Shamrock” she said, “but Scooter’s participation is a non-starter for me.”
Addressing her fans, Swift wrote, “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.”
Swift also attached to her tweet a copy of a letter she sent to Shamrock Holdings, dated Oct. 28.
“I feel the need to be very transparent with you,” she wrote Shamrock. “I will be going forward with my original re-recording schedule and will be embarking on that effort soon. I know this will diminish the value of my old masters, but I hope you will understand that this is my only way of regaining the sense of pride I once had when hearing songs from my first six albums and also allowing my fans to listen to those albums without feelings of guilt for benefitting Scooter.”
Shamrock has issued a response. “Taylor Swift is a transcendent artist with a timeless catalog,” the firm said in a statement. “We made this investment because we believe in the immense value and opportunity that comes with her work. We fully respect and support her decision and, while we hoped to formally partner, we also knew this was a possible outcome that we considered. We appreciate Taylor’s open communication and professionalism with us these last few weeks. We hope to partner with her in new ways moving forward and remain committed to investing with artists in their work.”