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Taylor Swift reveals Scooter Braun has sold her masters, confirms she's started re-recording music

17 November 2020, 10:02 | Written by Cerys Kenneally

Taylor Swift has confirmed that Scooter Braun has sold the rights to her first six albums, and has revealed that she's started re-recording her older material.

Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings LLC company acquired Big Machine Label Group in June 2019, giving Braun's company the rights to Swift's first six albums.

Over a year ago Swift confirmed that she had plans to re-record her early music, and last night (16 November) Swift gave an update on the situation, and revealed that she has already begun re-recording her older music.

In Swift's statement she reveals her team had tried to "enter into negotiations with Scooter Braun", but his team wanted her 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)."

Swift added that her "legal team said that this is absolutely NOT normal, and they've never seen an NDA like this presented unless it was to silence an assault accuser by paying them off. He would never even quote my team a price. These master recordings were not for sale to me."

In her statement she explained that her team received a letter a few weeks ago notifying her about the sale of her master recordings to a "private equity company called Shamrock Holdings". Swift added that this is the "second time my music had been sold without my knowledge." As BBC notes, the sale was reportedly worth more than $300 million (£227m).

The Folklore singer/songwriter explains that she learned that while her masters are owned by Shamrock Holdings, Braun "will continue to profit off my old musical catalog for many years."

Before ending her statement, Swift confirms that she has recently "begun re-recording my older music and it has already proven to be both exciting and creatively fulfilling." Swift also shared a copy of her letter to Shamrock Holdings responding to the sale of her music last month.

Scooter Braun is yet to respond to Taylor Swift's statement.
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