Taylor Swift needed to make a plan.
After more than a decade of working hard to craft her identity as one of the biggest pop stars of all time, her legacy and the future of her artistry were suddenly determined by someone else.
On this day four years ago, Swift was gearing up to release one of the sunniest albums of her career, “Lover,” which contained some of the happiest tracks in her catalog.
Behind the scenes though, she was thrown a curveball courtesy of two notable industry insiders in her camp: Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun.
The latter worked closely with some of music’s biggest stars of the modern era, including Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber.
Swift’s First Six Albums Were Purchased By Braun, And She Would Find Out As The News Broke
The “You Need To Calm Down” singer commonly took to her Tumblr in the 2010s to connect with her beloved ‘Swifties,’ and losing her masters would be no exception.
The event that would later shape the next phase of Swift’s career began with an open letter containing a screenshot of an Instagram post from Bieber; the black-and-white photo of Bieber’s forehead also contained a smaller photo of Bieber alongside Braun and a key player in Swift’s story, Kanye West.
The caption read “Taylor swift what up” Swift would circle Braun and explain: “This is Scooter Braun, bullying me on social media when I was at my lowest point. He’s about to own all the music I’ve ever made.”
She would later explain that the photo was taken after the infamous phone call and Snapchat video controversy involving West and his then-wife, Kim Kardashian.
She would start the letter with an explanation of the situation by writing, “For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work. Instead, I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in.”
“I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future. I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past. Music I wrote on my bedroom floor and videos I dreamed up and paid for from the money I earned playing in bars, then clubs, then arenas, then stadiums.”
In the next paragraph, Swift then revealed she was not warned of Braun’s intention to purchase her music ahead of time; she had found out as the news broke publicly.
“I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world,” Swift explained. “All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years.”
“Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy,” she explained in the following paragraph. “Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it…”
The “folklore” songstress would go on to stress that Borchetta knew her feelings about Braun. She revealed she would be close to tears whenever the duo would discuss Braun.
“Thankfully I’m now signed to a label that believes I should own anything I create,” Swift began the last paragraph. “Thankfully, I left my past in Scott’s hands and not my future. And hopefully, young artists or kids with musical dreams will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation. You deserve to own the art you make.”
The “Fearless” singer would follow up with a post a few months later, explaining that the duo had allegedly prevented her from performing any of her old material at the American Music Awards, where she would receive the Artist of the Decade award. Their reasoning for prohibiting Swift boiled down to timing; she was allegedly not allowed to record any of her older music until 2020. They also would not authorize any music to be used in Netflix’s “Miss. Americana”, the documentary about Swift released in January.
After Braun would sell Swift’s masters in a $300 million deal in November, the “I Knew You Were Trouble” singer would announce her plan to completely rerecord her first six albums!
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
In a statement shared on social media, Swift wrote, “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…” she teased with a ‘cool’ face emoji.
“Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version)” are out now, and “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” is set to follow on July 7th!