Taylor Swift made a lengthy statement on Twitter following a report from Variety that Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings sold her masters for more than $300 million.
According to Swift, she was unable to negotiate to get her own masters back unless she signed an ironclad NDA saying she would never speak negatively about Scooter Braun. Instead, all of her music, videos and album art was sold to Shamrock Holdings.
She wrote, “As soon as we started communication with Shamrock, I learned that under their terms Scooter Braun will continue to profit off my old musical catalog for many years. I was hopeful and open to the possibility of a partnership with Shamrock, but Scooter’s participation is a non-starter for me.”
The singer continued, “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.”
Braun took ownership of Swift’s catalog in June 2019 when Ithaca purchased Big Machine Label Group for $300,000. Swift announced in August 2019 that she planned to re-record her first five albums as soon as she was legally able to in November 2020.