Did Scooter Braun's Net Worth Tank After Angering Taylor Swift Or Did Their Feud Propel Him To Becom
Throughout music history, there haven't been many managers who've risen to fame themselves. That is why it is so amazing that Scooter Braun has become a celebrity after managing the likes of Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, J Balvin, Demi Lovato, and The Kid Laroi.
Given the role Braun has spent in shepherding the careers of many beloved artists to stardom, fans had a lot of reasons to appreciate him. For a lot of people, all of that changed when he bought the masters of Taylor Swift's first six albums.
After Swift expressed her outrage at Braun owning the rights to so many of her songs, he became public enemy number one for many of her devoted fans. With that in mind, it leaves fans wondering if Braun made money from owning the rights to Swift's music or if the backlash ruined his business plans.
Why Scooter Braun's Feud With Taylor Swift Cost Him A Fortune
In 2019, the pop music world was dealt a huge shock when it was suddenly announced that Scooter Braun's company, Ithaca Holdings, bought the Big Machine Label Group. With that purchase, Braun acquired the rights to the songs of many artists which is often referred to as owning the musician's masters.
Despite the long list of artists that were affected by the purchase, virtually everyone was focused on one thing, Braun owned the rights to Taylor Swift's first six studio albums. That meant that Braun owned the masters for Swift's albums "Taylor Swift", "Fearless", "Speak Now", "Red", "1989", and "Reputation.
The reason why so much focus was on Swift was two-fold.
It was a big deal that Braun owned the masters for songs like "You Belong With Me ", "Love Story", "Shake It Off", "Teardrops On My Guitar", "Our Song", and "I Knew You Were Trouble". More notably, the deal quickly started to become problematic for Braun as Swift came out against it.
Immediately after the deal was announced, Swift uploaded an extremely raw post on Tumblr in which she called the situation a "worst-case scenario". Swift also referred to Braun as an “incessant, manipulative bully" and the entire post communicated that she felt violated.
Unsurprisingly, Swift's millions of devoted fans, who care about everything she goes through, were outraged with her. Several of Swift's peers like Halsey and Iggy Azalea also publicly supported her. On the other hand, several artists spoke out in defense of Braun with his associates notably having his back.
After Swift posted her Tumblr post, many people believed that there was very little she could really do about the situation. In a lot of ways, that is true since Swift had no legal recourse to change the fact that Braun owned her music.
As it turns out, however, Swift had one trick up her sleeve that could hurt Braun financially.
Under the deal that Swift signed with Big Machine Records, she had the right to re-record all the albums she made for that company five years later. As a result, Swift now has the legal right to re-record all of her albums that Braun owned the rights to which would give her ownership of those versions of her songs.
After announcing her intention to re-record her early albums that Braun owned, Swift followed through on her plan. In 2021, Swift released "Fearless (Taylor's Version)" and Red (Taylor's Version)". Two years later in 2023, Swift released "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)".
After Swift released those three albums, most of her fans felt like the right thing to do was listen to the versions of her hit songs that she owned the masters for. Needless to say, that significantly reduced the value of the original versions of those three albums.
Based on how things played out, there is no denying that Braun would have made a lot more money if his feud with Swift never happened. After all, Braun would most likely still own the rights to the definitive version of Swift's first six studio albums as of this moment if he had a positive relationship with Swift.
How Scooter Braun Made A Fortune From Owning Taylor Swift's Masters
Even though Scooter Braun would be richer today if he had a good relationship with Taylor Swift, the fact remains that buying the pop star's masters was a great business deal for him. The reason that is the case is based on what is known about the deal, Braun cashed in on Swift's master in a major way.
When Braun's company bought the Big Machine Label Group in 2019, it was widely reported that the deal cost his company $300 million. Roughly a year and a half later, Braun sold the masters to Swift's first six albums to Shamrock Holdings, a private equity firm owned by members of the Disney family, not the company.
At the time of that deal, Variety published an article looking at the sale of the masters to Swift's first six albums. That piece suggested how much Braun's company could have made from the deal.
"Some insiders speculate the value could be as high as $450 million once certain earn-backs are factored in." If that figure is correct, Braun's company received $145 million more than the price it paid for all of Big Machine Records.
When looking at how much money Braun made from his initial deal to buy Big Machine Records, there are other factors to consider.
Between the time Braun's company bought and sold the rights to Swift's masters, it would have profited off them in a slew of different ways. On top of that, when Braun's company bought Big Machine Records, it acquired the masters of a long list of other artists it still profits from to this day.
As for the reputational hit Braun suffered from this entire situation, that likely doesn't matter much from a financial point of view. After all, the vast majority of people who have a bad impression of Braun aren't going to boycott the artists he is involved with since he works behind the scenes.
That said, based on Braun's public statements, he has been affected by the anger many people have directed at him. In 2022, Braun professed he has regrets about how he handled things when he first bought Swift's Masters. Braun did also point out that some aspects of the situation were out of his control because of an NDA he signed.
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