Scooter Braun said he learned an “important lesson” from the dramatic turn of events that followed his acquisition of Taylor Swift’s master recordings.
The famed music executive appeared on NPR’s ‘The Limits with Jay Williams’ podcast this week and admitted he came from a ‘place of arrogance’ assuming the ‘All Too Well’ singer would tell him about it. ‘OK.
“The regret I have there is that I assumed everyone – once the deal was done – was going to have a conversation with me, see my intent, see my character and say, ‘Great , let’s do business together,” Braun, 41, shared, “and I made that assumption with people I didn’t know.
“And I learned an important lesson from that: that I can never make that assumption again. I can’t put myself in a position of arrogance to think that someone would just be willing to have a conversation and be happy to work with me,” he continued.
“I don’t know these people.”
Braun’s purchase of Swift’s back catalog in 2019 was the result of her company Ithaca Holdings’ acquisition of Big Machine Records, which was the label that discovered Swift in 2005. (She is now with Universal Music Group.) At the time, a source told Page Six that the “Style” singer had the chance to redeem her masters but “walked away” from the opportunity.
Swift, however, criticized the acquisition and denied having had the opportunity to repurchase her music. Scott Borchetta, the former head of Big Machine, later dismissed Swift’s claims with apparent screenshots of text messages with the pop star discussing the deal.
“What I said [Borchetta] was, “Hey, if any of the artists want to come back and join this, you have to let me know,” Braun reminded Williams. “And he shared with me a letter that’s been publicly released where, you know, the artist you’re referring to said, ‘I don’t want to participate in my masters. I decided, you know, not to do this deal, blah, blah, blah. So that was the idea I had.
Braun recalled calling various artists to introduce themselves, only to immediately face a backlash.
“I made four phone calls; I started making these phone calls – it all went wild,” he said. “So I think a lot of things got lost in translation. I think when you have a conflict with someone, it’s very hard to resolve it if you’re not willing to have a conversation.
Braun, who just got divorced, said he “didn’t like” how the deal with Swift, 32, had gone, but understood that she “probably felt it was going to happen.” was unfair too”.
“So I chose to look at it as a lesson in learning, a lesson in growth, and I wish everyone involved the best of luck,” he said. “And I encourage everyone to win because I don’t believe in rooting for people to lose.”
Since Braun’s acquisition of the Swift Masters, which he sold in 2020 for more than $300 million, the “Love Story” singer has been re-recording her first six albums. She has already released “Fearless” and “Red”.
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