🎵 Taylor Swift vs. Scooter Braun: What Happened?

Em Gillespie joins Jonesy & Amanda with the latest in entertainment!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jersey and Amanda gem Nation, and the goat of entertainment
editors is M Gillespie.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hello, M, Hello, Well we are here to talk about
the goat of pop culture.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Law.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
I'm so excited today to talk to you about this, guys,
because Taylor Swift has bought back her masters after what
some could say would be a twenty year battle, but
at least the better part of a decade.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Howd she lose them? What happened? Great question, Well, when
she was just a wee fifteen year old, she signed
to this record label, Big Machine Records, and essentially they
owned the masters to her first six albums. Now, in
the music industry, when we're talking masters, we're referring to
the original official recording of a song. So that's the
source material that from which other versions are licensed. A

(00:45):
good kind of metaphor is like think about the Mona
Lisa in the louver. That's the master copy, and then
you can buy a print, but you don't own the
original painting. And basically Taylor Swift always had this intention,
this planned that one day she would buy back her masters.
Now Big Machine Records, that label that she signed with
originally was sold in twenty nineteen to a man called

(01:06):
Scooter Braun. You may have heard of him because he
was a very famous music manager, but also because he
became the villain of the music industry when he bought
this record label. He's worked with people like Justin Bieber.
He's kind of credited as discovering Bieber. He's worked with
Conney West, Ariana Grande. Anyway, he acquired this record label
for a reported three hundred million dollars in twenty nineteen,

(01:26):
which gave him control of Taylor Swift's first six albums.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
So he could have used that to do anything pretty much.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
And it also means that he makes a lot of
money from her six shoe albums being licensed. This is
like Michael Jackson buying the Beatles back catalog. Yes, yes, exactly.
So Taylor Swift by that point had already moved record labels.
She was with Universal by that point, and she came
out and released this famous statement to Tumblr very retro
in twenty nineteen where she called the deal her worst

(01:55):
case scenario. She said the sale was a nightmare for her.
She accused Braun of incessant manipulity bullying over the years,
and that was the start of this very very public fallout.
Now this bullying. She refers to Scooter Braun managed Kanye West.
You might remember the infamous two thousand and Ninevmas. He
stormed the stage, Taylor won and award, he said it

(02:16):
should have gone to Beyonce. And then later he made
this song called Famous, where he said he implied that
him and Taylor might still have sex because he made
her famous. The video clip had like an AI or
like a modeled version of Taylor Swift naked in a bed.
It was all very seedy and very offensive. She hated it.
The world hated it anyway. Scooter Braun has now done

(02:38):
a podcast where he has spoken about the whole saga.
He's admitted that he was kind of shocked by Taylor
Swift's response to him buying the records, and that he
kind of the whole thing just blew up out of proportion.
He's a little bit of what he said.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
I started managing Kanye West, I managed Justin Bieber. I
knew 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 manage them. But I thought
that once this announcement happened, she would talk to me
and we would work together. I can't worry about everyone's
niece being mad at me, you know, I wish everyone

(03:12):
involved nothing but good wishes. But he should worry about
her being mad at him, because all her followers would
be mad at him.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yes, and so was the last I guess eight years
of his life has been kind of this sticking point
for not only Taylor Swift, but the whole world and
all of her fans and all of the criticism against him.
He says that that criticism has given him kind of
a new understanding of what it's like to be on
the receiving end of scrutiny, that it taught him real empathy.
He's being very kind of like, oh, like, I've had

(03:41):
this full personal journey and now I've come out on
the other side and I'm a great guy. But the
jury's out on that.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
How can't she buy the stuff back?

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, Scooter Braun sold the Masters to a private equity
firm in twenty twenty called Shamrock Capital. Swift declined to
partner with them on that deal because Scooter Braun would
still profit it from it, so she wanted absolutely nothing
to do with him, But a couple of weeks ago
we heard from her. She posted a letter to a
website saying she'd finally brought back her entire catalog from Shamrock.

(04:12):
This means she's regained control of all of the songs,
of all the videos, the related assets of her first
six albums. She said, all of the music I've ever
made now belongs to me. The best things that have
never that have ever been mine finally actually are. Shamrock
Capital has released a statement in support, saying it's thrilled
at the outcome, so happy for Taylor. Of course, it's thrilled.

(04:33):
It just made a room with three hundred and sixty millions.
Offer was done all right, ever, but it's like me,
I owned the original masters to bad elements so exactly,
and you hold on to those that's on a lock
and key.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Is anyone fighting you for them?

Speaker 2 (04:45):
People? They're lining up out the door. Don't you let
those big music industry types take that away from.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
The Scooter Braun of the world.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Exactly, No more scooters.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Check it out.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
Check her out editor The Daily Lesbie.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Thank you, Thank you U