Scooter Braun, the man who accidentally became the music industry’s favourite villain, has finally spilled his side of the Taylor Swift masters debacle. And if you were hoping for a dramatic confession or a ‘my bad’, well you might want to lower those expectations.
Appearing on The Diary of a CEO podcast this week, Braun offered up a mix of bemusement, self-reflection, and a few lines that could double as inspirational fridge magnets.
Let’s get one thing straight: Scooter’s still playing it off like the whole situation wasn’t a big deal. “What happened?” he deadpanned to host Steven Bartlett, when he was asked about the situation.
For context, Braun bought Big Machine Records in 2019, which included the master recordings of Taylor Swift’s first six albums. Swift, who was not consulted, called it her “worst case scenario” and accused Braun of “incessant, manipulative bullying” — all in a now-iconic Tumblr post.
But according to Braun, he thought he’d just bought a record label, not a front-row seat to pop culture’s messiest feud. “I thought I was going to work with all the artists on Big Machine. I thought it was gonna be an exciting thing,” he told Bartlett.
Braun claimed he’d only met Swift “three or four times”.
“One of the times, it was years earlier, it was really a great engagement,” he claimed.
Braun admits he knew Swift wasn’t exactly besties with his other clients — namely Kanye West and Justin Bieber — but figured she’d give him a fair go.
“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.”
Spoiler: that’s not what happened.
Instead, Swift went public, saying she only found out about the sale when the rest of the world did. Braun says he was “just shocked” by her reaction. He claimed he even tried to get her number from Scott Borchetta, the Big Machine boss, but before he could reach out, Swift’s Tumblr post had already set the internet ablaze.
Reflecting on the fallout, Braun told Bartlett, “All the praise I had received up until that moment was not deserved. All the hate I got after that moment was not deserved, because none of these people knew me. The gift of pain was awareness.”
Is the awareness in the room with us?
While Braun was busy soul-searching, Swift took matters into her own hands. She started re-recording her old albums as “Taylor’s Version”, effectively tanking the value of the original masters (and giving us a chance to relive the best years of our lives).
Cut to 2025, Swift had bought back her entire catalogue — without Braun’s involvement — declaring, “All of the music I’ve ever made… now belongs… to me.” War was well and truly over for her.
Braun, for his part, insists he’s moved on. “Everyone moves on. I choose to see it as a gift. I choose to see it as being able to have a perspective that very few people in the world have of knowing what that’s like. Of feeling that on a global level.”
Totally king.
Lead image: Diary Of A CEO Podcast / The Graham Norton Show
