Taylor Swift’s Masters Have Been Sold A Second Time Without Her Consent

Swift confirmed on Monday that Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings LLC has sold her masters to the private equity firm Shamrock Holdings without her consent. The sale comes just 17 months after Braun purchased Big Machine Label Group, which included Swift’s masters for her first six albums, also without Swift’s consent. 

In the interim, Swift attempted to purchase her masters from Braun, but was offered conditions she felt she couldn’t agree to. Swift posted the details about the situation on Twitter on Monday.

The sale of Swift’s masters to Shamrock Holdings is believed to be at least $300 million, maybe even as high as $450 million.

Swift signed with Big Machine at the beginning of her career, and her contract with them ended in fall 2018. She has since signed a deal with Universal Music Group. Swift is also now free to re-record songs from her first five albums with Big Machine. She first publicly announced her plans to do so in August 2019, and she reaffirmed those plans on Monday.

Swift and Braun have been at odds since Braun bought Big Machine after Swift failed to buy her masters from her recording label the first time: “This just happened to me without my approval, consultation or consent. After I was denied the chance to purchase my music outright, my entire catalog was sold to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings...Yet, to this day, none of these investors have bothered to contact me or my team directly — to perform their due diligence on their investment. On their investment in me. To ask how I might feel about the new owner of my art, the music I wrote, the videos I created, photos of me, my handwriting, my album designs.”

Swift is not the only musician trying to acquire the master rights to her own music. Earlier this year Kanye West was also working to purchase his master rights.