Scooter Sells Taylor’s Masters
• Nearly 18 months after Scooter Braun‘s Ithaca Holdings LLC acquired Big Machine Label Group (BMLG) and all of its recorded music assets, sources tell Variety that Braun has spun off the master rights to Taylor Swift‘s first six albums to a private equity firm (identified by Taylor as Burbank-based Shamrock Holdings) in a deal worth more than $300 million.
As we reported last year, Ithaca purchased Big Machine, founded by Scott Borchetta in 2005, in June 2019 for just over $300 million. That acquisition included all elements of BMLG’s business — its client roster, distribution deals, publishing and owned artist masters, including Taylor’s first six albums. Swift signed with BMLG at the beginning of her career, and when her contract expired in fall 2018 she signed a deal for future recordings with Universal Music Group.
• In a lengthy letter posted to Twitter, Taylor noted, in part, “A few weeks ago my team received a letter from a company called Shamrock Holdings, letting us know that they had bought 100% of my music, videos and album art from Scooter Braun. This was the second time my music had been sold without my knowledge. The letter told me that they wanted to reach out before the sale to let me know, but that Scooter Braun had required that they make no contact with me or my team, or the deal would be off.” She continued, “As soon as we started communication with Shamrock, I learned that under their terms Scooter Braun will continue to profit off my old musical catalog for many years. I was hopeful and open to the possibility of a partnership with Shamrock, but Scooter’s participation is a non-starter for me.”
Interestingly, as of this month Taylor is contractually free to re-record songs from her first five BMLG-issued albums, and according to her letter, that process is already underway, as she noted, “I have recently begun re-recording my older music and it has already proven to be both exciting and creatively fulfilling. I have plenty of surprises in store.” Taylor also posted a copy of the letter of response she sent to Shamrock on Oct. 28 after learning of the sale of her early music.
What’s the advantage of Taylor re-recording her catalog? As the Variety piece theorizes, “Snatching income from the buyer by making sure that her new versions, and not the ones previously owned by her former label, are the ones played by fans and used in any number of commercial ventures, such as advertisements, TV shows, movies, games and other uses. The company buying master rights would still need clearance from a song’s publisher in order to license it for commercial sync use going forward.”
