Inside Taylor Swift’s Longtime Feud with Scooter Braun — and How She Reclaimed Her Music Catalog Years After He Bought It

Taylor Swift has formally purchased again her track catalog, six years after it was once bought to Scooter Braun — a transfer that ignited a sophisticated years-long feud between the 2.

On May 30, the Grammy-winning famous person shared an emotional observation on her site, writing, “I’ve been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found out that this is really happening. I really get to say these words: All of the music I’ve ever made… now belongs… to me.”

The long-awaited solution comes years after Swift and Braun’s saga started, when the track supervisor bought Big Machine Records from Scott Borchetta, which gave him keep watch over of the “Karma” singer’s first six albums.

The sale resulted in a sophisticated fight between Swift and her former checklist label, and sooner or later impressed the celebrity to re-record her first six albums to be able to regain possession of her track catalog. While the singer has re-released 4 out of six of the albums, she added in her observation that the remainder two can “nonetheless have their moments to re-emerge when the time is correct.”

“But if it happens, it won’t be from a place of sadness and longing for what I wish I could have,” she persisted. “It will just be a celebration now.”

From their early beginnings to the drama that has spread out lately, right here’s a whole timeline of Swift and Braun’s historical past within the track trade. 

2009: Taylor Swift meets Scooter Braun for the 1st time 

In June 2024, Discovery+ UK’s launched a brand new docuseries, titled Taylor Swift vs. Scooter Braun: Bad Blood, which detailed the singer and the track supervisor’s early encounters that led their drama to spread.

As detailed within the docuseries, Swift and Braun first crossed paths when Justin Bieber (who was once controlled via Braun on the time), opened for Swift on her Fearless Tour. In 2011, Swift and Bieber reunited after they carried out Bieber’s hit track “Baby” all over his visitor look on her Speak Now World Tour.

In the 2011 live performance movie Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, Braun mentioned Swift being an inspiration for Bieber, recalling taking Bieber to peer Swift carry out at Madison Square Garden all over her Fearless Tour. 

March 2016: Scooter Braun turns into Kanye West’s supervisor in a while after he releases ‘Famous’ track

In March 2016, information broke that Braun can be taking over a brand new function as Kanye West’s supervisor. The partnership got here only a month after West debuted his new track “Famous,” which featured a dig at Swift (“I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous”). 

The track reignited Swift and West’s long-running feud; West claimed that he had up to now gotten permission from Swift to name-drop her all over a telephone dialog, and Swift launched a observation denying it.

The drama was once additional escalated months later when Kim Kardashian launched pictures from the telephone name between West and Swift (which was once later discovered to be an incomplete checklist of the dialog) and the hashtag #KimUncoveredTaylorBirthday party began trending. 

August 2016: Justin Bieber alludes to ‘Famous’ drama with a photograph of him, Kanye West and Scooter Braun 

As the web started taking facets within the West-Swift drama, Bieber alluded to the feud on social media as he posted a FaceTime name between him and West and Braun, merely captioning the put up, “Taylor swift what up.” 

Years later, Swift referenced the photograph in accordance with Braun purchasing her masters, claiming that she won “incessant, manipulative bullying” from Braun for years — “like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a telephone name to be leaked after which Scooter were given his two shoppers in combination to bully me on-line about it.”

November 2018: Taylor Swift indicators with Universal Music Group

After parting techniques with Big Machine Records, Swift introduced that she had signed a brand new international checklist deal with Universal Music Group in November 2018. Through the brand new deal, she identified that she would personal “all of my grasp recordings that I make any longer.”

June 30, 2019: Scott Borchetta sells Big Machine Records to Scooter Braun — and Taylor Swift reacts

Less than a yr later, information broke that Scott Borchetta had bought Big Machine Records — and with it, the rights to Swift’s grasp recordings — to Braun in a reported $300 million deal. 

That similar day, Swift reacted to the sale in a long Tumblr put up. She famous that “for years” she pleaded with Borchetta “for a chance to own” her paintings, however as an alternative, he gave her the “opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in.”

She famous that she determined to stroll clear of Big Machine, figuring out that Borchetta would sooner or later promote the label, “thereby selling me and my future,” she wrote. 

The singer persisted on to mention, “I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years.” She pointed to more than a few examples, together with Bieber’s aforementioned FaceTime name with Braun and West. 

“Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy,” she persisted. “Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.” 

June 2019: Celebrities take facets within the Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun feud 

Following Swift’s Tumblr put up, celebrities hastily reacted on-line, with stars together with Selena Gomez, Halsey and extra siding with Swift, and Braun’s shoppers akin to Demi Lovato and Bieber coming to his protection. 

Bieber, particularly, wrote a long Instagram message apologizing for his 2016 Instagram put up, denying that Braun was once answerable for any bullying. “Scooter has had your back since the days you graciously let me open up for you.!” wrote Bieber. “What were you trying to accomplish by posting that blog? Seems to me like it was to get sympathy u also knew that in posting that your fans would go and bully scooter. Anyway, One thing I know is both scooter and I love you.”

Bieber concluded, “Neither scooter or I have anything negative to say about you we truly want the best for you. I usually don’t rebuttal things like this but when you try and deface someone I loves character that’s crossing a line.”

August 2019: Taylor Swift finds her plans to re-record her first six albums

A couple of quick months later, Swift publicly introduced her plans to re-record her albums all over an interview with CBS Sunday Morning.

When Tracy Smith requested Swift if she may just re-record, Swift replied with an empathic, “Oh yeah.” Smith then requested, “That’s a plan?”, to which Swift replied, “Absolutely.”

She later showed the scoop all over an look on Good Morning America with Robin Roberts whilst selling Lover, her first album recorded with the exception of Big Machine and owned via her.

November 14, 2019: Taylor Swift alleges that Big Machine is obstructing her from making a song her previous hits at American Music Awards

In November 2019, Swift spoke up once more to allege that Big Machine was once blocking off her from making a song her previous hits in a medley on the American Music Awards, at which she was once set to obtain Artist of the Decade. 

In a long observation on X, Swift printed that Borchetta and Braun “have now said that I’m not allowed to perform my old songs on television because they claim that would be re-recording my music before I’m allowed to next year.”

She concluded her observation via asking her fanatics to “please let Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun know how you feel about this” and inspiring them to make their ideas identified to Braun’s roster of artists as smartly, announcing, “I’m hoping that maybe they can talk some sense into the men who are exercising tyrannical control over someone who just wants to play the music she wrote.”

Following Swift’s observation, Big Machine made one in all its personal, claiming that what Swift had mentioned was once “false information.” The observation persisted, “At no level did we are saying Taylor may just no longer carry out at the AMAs or block her Netflix particular. In reality, we should not have the best to stay her from acting are living any place. Since Taylor’s determination to go away Big Machine remaining fall, we’ve got persisted to honor all of her requests to license her catalog to 3rd events as she promotes her present checklist during which we don’t financially take part.”

November 24, 2019: Taylor Swift makes a sartorial observation on the American Music Awards

After some backward and forward between Swift and Big Machine Records, the singer was once given the go-ahead to sing her early hits on the AMAs. 

Ahead of the efficiency, each Big Machine and Dick Clark Productions launched a observation that learn, “The Big Machine Label Group and Dick Clark Productions announce that they have come to terms on a licensing agreement that approves their artists’ performances to stream post show and for re-broadcast on mutually approved platforms.”

During the efficiency, Swift opened with the Lover track “The Man.” Though she didn’t make connection with Braun or Borchetta all over her speech, she did allude to the masters fight via dressed in a button-up blouse that featured the names of her first six albums. 

December 12, 2019: Taylor Swift calls out Scooter Braun all over Billboard Woman of the Decade award speech

A month later, simply as Swift was once about to show 30, she delivered a shifting speech after she was once venerated with the first-ever Billboard Woman of the Decade award. In the speech, she referred to as out the double requirements girls face within the track trade, prior to at once referencing her masters fight between Braun and Borchetta. 

“Of course, Scooter never contacted me or my team to discuss it prior to the sale or even when it was announced,” Swift explained on stage. “I’m relatively positive he knew precisely how I might really feel about it despite the fact that and let me simply say that the definition of poisonous male privilege in our trade is other folks announcing, ‘But he is all the time been great to me’ when I’m elevating legitimate considerations about artists and their rights to possess their track. Of direction, he is great to other folks on this room, you’ve got one thing he wishes.”

“The fact is that private equity is what enabled this man to think, according to his own social media posts, that he could ‘buy me.’ Well, I’m obviously not going willingly,” Swift asserted prior to praising the ladies who got here ahead to fortify her. 

April 2020: Taylor Swift calls out Big Machine for unlock of are living album

Swift’s fight along with her former checklist label persisted in April 2020 as Big Machine deliberate to unlock a brand new album of are living performances titled Live from Clear Channel Stripped 2008, which she famous was once “not approved” via her.

“I’m always honest with you guys about this stuff so I just wanted to tell you that this release is not approved by me. It looks to me like Scooter Braun and his financial backers, 23 Capital, Alex Soros and the Soros family and The Carlyle Group have seen the latest balance sheets and realized that paying $330 MILLION for my music wasn’t exactly a wise choice and they need money,” she wrote, including a crying-laughing emoji.

Swift concluded the put up, writing, “In my opinion…Just another case of shameless greed in the time of Coronavirus. So tasteless, but very transparent.”

July 24, 2020: Taylor Swift sings about her masters fight in Folklore

Swift’s 8th studio album, Folklore, seemed to deal with her masters fight thru her track for the 1st time. Her observe “My Tears Ricochet,” which she printed was once the 1st track she wrote for the album, seems to be about leaving Big Machine at the back of and the harm she felt when Borchetta bought the label to Braun.

November 2020: Scooter Braun sells Taylor Swift masters 

Later that yr, fanatics had been thrown for some other loop when it was once printed that Braun had bought Swift’s masters for greater than $300 million. At first, fanatics assumed that it was once Swift who purchased again the rights, alternatively, she later cleared issues up on social media. 

She shared a observation on X explaining that she had tried over the last yr to “enter into negotiations” with Braun to shop for her paintings again however would were required to signal an “ironclad NDA” pointing out she would best talk definitely in regards to the entrepreneur prior to being allowed to take a look at Big Machine’s monetary data.

Swift mentioned {that a} personal fairness corporate referred to as Shamrock Holdings was once the only to buy her masters from Braun — however that Ithaca Holdings would nonetheless benefit off her previous track for “many years,” one thing the singer referred to as “a non-starter for me.”

Shamrock Holdings had contacted Swift in hopes of operating in combination, however the “Lover” singer replied she “simply cannot in good conscience bring myself to be involved in benefitting Scooter Braun’s interests directly or indirectly.”

She added that she had begun re-recording her older track, a procedure that she referred to as “both exciting and creatively fulfilling,” teasing that there have been “plenty of surprises in store” for fanatics.

April 9, 2021: Taylor Swift releases Fearless (Taylor’s Version)

The following yr, Swift made just right on that promise as she launched her first re-recorded album, Fearless (Taylor’s Version). The album incorporated spot-on re-recordings of her unique songs, whilst additionally together with six new vault tracks that had been up to now unreleased. 

The album was once successful identical to the unique, debuting at No. 1, turning into her 9th album to take action, consistent with Billboard. Additionally, the opening reported that it was once the most important week for an album up to now in 2021 as Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is the one re-recorded album in historical past to achieve No. 1.

June 2021: Scooter Braun speaks out about Taylor Swift drama 

Though Braun had up to now alluded to the masters drama with Swift in earlier interviews, he overtly addressed the war all over an interview with Variety revealed in June 2021. When requested about Swift’s preliminary response to the Big Machine sale, Braun replied: “I be apologetic about and it makes me unhappy that Taylor had that response to the deal. … All of what took place has been very complicated and no longer in keeping with the rest factual.”

“I don’t know what story she was told,” he persisted. “I asked for her to sit down with me several times, but she refused. I offered to sell her the catalog back and went under NDA, but her team refused. It all seems very unfortunate. Open communication is important and can lead to understanding. She and I only met briefly three or four times in the past, and all our interactions were really friendly and kind. I find her to be an incredibly talented artist and wish her nothing but the best.” 

He added that what “struck” him probably the most about Swift’s preliminary observation was once being known as a “bully.”

“I’m firmly against anyone ever being bullied,” Braun mentioned. “I always try to lead with appreciation and understanding. The one thing I’m proudest of in that moment was that my artists and team stood by me. They know my character and my truth. That meant a lot to me. In the long run, I’m happy for my life’s work to be the legacy I leave behind.” 

October 21, 2022: Taylor Swift alludes to Scooter Braun drama in Midnights album

As Swift launched her 10th studio album, Midnights, she alluded to Braun all over again along with her tracks “Karma” and “Vigilante S—.” The former addressed a number of of her public feuds, whilst the latter seemed to allude to Braun’s divorce from ex-wife Yael Cohen. 

Among the lyrics in “Karma,” Swift sings, “Spiderboy, king of thieves/ Weave your little webs of opacity/ My pennies made your crown/ Trick me once, trick me twice/ Don’t you know that cash ain’t the only price,” Swift sings on “Karma,” reputedly making connection with Braun’s logo 100 Thieves and his acquire of her grasp recordings. 

June 2024: Taylor Swift’s staff reacts to new docuseries Taylor Swift vs. Scooter Braun: Bad Blood

Following the luck of her re-recordings and the Eras Tour, all over which she carried out her intensive track catalog to fanatics, Swift gave an extraordinary observation about Braun in accordance with the discharge of Taylor Swift vs. Scooter Braun: Bad Blood.

At the top of the two-part docuseries, a observation from Swift’s staff reads that she “has completely moved on from this saga.”

“[She] has turned what started out as an extremely painful situation into one of the most fulfilling endeavors of her life,” the observation persisted, regarding the celebrity’s determination to re-record her first six albums.

“None of those males will ever be capable to take the rest clear of Taylor’s legacy as a songwriter, singer, director, philanthropist and recommend for artists’ rights,” the observation concluded.

May 30, 2025: Taylor Swift declares that she purchased again her track catalog

Six years after her track catalog was once bought to Braun, Swift shared a letter on her site that exposed she had regained keep watch over of her masters.

“Hi. I’m trying to gather my thoughts into something coherent, but right now my mind is just a slideshow. A flashback sequence of all the times I daydreamed about, wished for, and pined away for a chance to get to tell you this news,” she wrote within the observation. “All the times I was thiiiiiiiiiiiiis close, reaching out for it, only for it to fall through.”

Swift persisted, “I almost stopped thinking it could ever happen, after 20 years of having the carrot dangled then yanked away. But that’s all in the past now.”

While some experiences claimed Braun inspired the deal, a supply as regards to contract negotiations instructed PEOPLE that he was once no longer concerned within the procedure.

“Taylor now owns all of her track, and this second in spite of everything took place despite Scooter Braun, no longer as a result of him,” the supply mentioned.