Look what Scooter Braun made Taylor Swift do: start re-recording her old songs.
Swift spoke out this week after Braun, the music manager she has slammed for alleged "incessant, manipulative bullying," sold the master rights to her first six albums to an investment fund. In a statement, Swift said she had been attempting to negotiate with Braun to regain ownership over the master recordings herself, but she says she was asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement that "would silence me forever" by stating that she could "never say another word about" Braun "unless it was positive."
The masters were ultimately sold to Shamrock Holdings, the "second time my music had been sold without my knowledge," Swift wrote. She said she was unhappy to learn that Braun will continue to profit off her songs under this deal, and she attached a letter written to Shamrock Holdings in which she says she "cannot currently entertain being partners with" them as a result.
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Swift previously spoke out after Braun gained control of her masters upon purchasing her old label, Big Machine Label Group, in 2019, saying she didn't learn about the sale until it was announced publicly and that Braun "stripped me of my life's work, that I wasn't given an opportunity to buy." She also accused Braun of years of "incessant, manipulative bullying."
But Swift also revealed this week that she has officially started to re-record these older songs. In her letter to Shamrock Holdings shared on social media, she said that while doing so will "diminish the value of my old masters," it will help her to regain "the sense of pride I once had when hearing songs from my first six albums" and allow her fans "to listen to those albums without feelings of guilt for benefiting Scooter."
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