On Monday, a new development emerged in Taylor Swift’s ongoing battle to get the rights to her first six albums’ back. A report surfaced that Scooter Braun had sold her masters to a company for $300 million, the same price for which he bought Big Machine Records last year. But now Swift is saying that Braun asked her to sign a strict NDA to “silence” her, hoping that that would dissuade her from retrieving her past work.
In a lengthy message posted to social media, Swift claims that didn’t sign the NDA, saying her team was never even able to get a price quote for the masters:
“Scooter’s team wanted me to sign an ironclad NDA stating I would never say another word about Scooter Braun unless it was positive, before we could even look at the financial records of BMLG (which is always the first step in a purchase of this nature). So, I would have to sign a document that would silence me forever before I could even have a chance to bid on my own work. My legal team said this is absolutely NOT normal, and they’ve never seen an NDA like this presented unless it was to silence an assault accuser by paying them off. He would never even quote my team a price. These master recordings were not for sale to me.
A few weeks ago my team received a letter from a private equity 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.”
Along with the statement, Swift also included her response to Shamrock Holdings’ letter. The singer said she plans to move forward with re-recording her first six albums because she doesn’t want Braun to continue to profit off her work.
Been getting a lot of questions about the recent sale of my old masters. I hope this clears things up. pic.twitter.com/sscKXp2ibD
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) November 16, 2020
You can read Swift’s full statement above.