Scooter Braun – who’s become notorious in recent years for buying the rights to Taylor Swift’s songs in 2019 causing her to re-record all of her six original albums – has spoken out about his thoughts on feuding with the stars.
The music mogul and former manager to Justin Bieber, appeared on Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO podcast to address the clashes. Once a respected figurehead in the industry, Braun headed for his downfall after he bought the masters to Swift’s song catalogue from Scott Borchetta, the founder of Big Machine Records.
What Braun said about Taylor?
“I thought it was going to be an exciting thing, I knew that Taylor – she and I had only met three times I think in my life, three or four times.” Braun explained to Bartlett.
“And one of the times – it was years earlier, it was really a great engagement, she invited me to a private party and we respected each other.”
After the two were made friendly, Braun went on to take both Kanye West and Justin Bieber under his managerial wing, saying that he didn’t think it would affect his and Swift’s relationship despite knowing that she “didn’t get along with them”.
“This is where my arrogance came in, I had a feeling she probably didn’t like me because I managed them but I thought that once this announcement happened she would talk to me, see who I am, and we would work together,” he revealed.
However, it backfired on Braun when Swift then went on the post a very revealing letter to Tumblr to expose how Braun’s plan to own the masters to all of her previous six albums came as a surprise, saying: “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.”
“Having that experience allows me to have empathy for the people I worked with who I would always say ‘yeah I understand’,” Braun went on to reveal.
“But I never knew what it was like to be on the global stage like that, I never knew what criticism like that felt like.”
When asked by Bartlett as to why he didn’t sell Swift’s catalogue back to her, instead of Shamrock Capital, he replied: “In the world of streaming, the re-records will only help the old catalogue as much as they help the new catalogue,” Braun said. “Both will get a bump. I showed how everyone can be a winner here, and I was able to sell the catalogue and — I don’t want to go into too much detail, but it’s now come out very factually that I did offer it [to Taylor] … multiple times in that process. They said no, I sold to someone else, washed my hands of it and moved on.”
Swift had a different version of events, however, previously making a statement on X back in 2020: “Scooter’s team wanted me to sign an ironclad NDA stating I would never say another word about Scooter Braun unless it was positive … 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”.
Recently, after gaining funds from her worldwide The Eras Tour, Swift was able to buy back her master recordings from Shamrock Capital that sent her fans into a spin.
What Braun said about Justin?
Braun and Bieber officially cut off their professional relationship in 2023, with Braun revealing that their relationship has changed since.
On the podcast, he said that he is “proud of what we achieved and [I’m] always rooting for him”.
He also shared that he had a feeling that their professional relationship was coming to a close. “I think there comes a point where, I understand, he probably wants to go on and show that he can do it. We worked together for so long and we had such extreme success,” Braun said.
You can listen to more of Braun’s podcast with Bartlett, here.
