Taylor Swift praised for ‘taking a stand’ as Scooter Braun sells her album masters in reported £226m deal

Taylor Swift has been praised by her fans for “fighting” back after the masters rights to her first six albums were sold “without her knowledge” for a second time.

On Monday night (16 November) Swift reacted to a report by Variety that her masters had been sold by music manager Scooter Braun just 17 months after he first brought them.

Writing on social media, Swift claimed that Braun – who also manages Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande – had asked her to sign an “ironclad” non-disclosure agreement before even discussing the sale of her masters.

He then sold them to private equity firm Shamrock Holdings for a reported $300m (£226m), but in a letter sent from Swift to Shamrock, the singer claims that she will not work with them as Braun will allegedly still profit from the catalogue for “many years”.

“It’s a shame to know that I will now be unable to help grow the future of these past works and it pains me very deeply to remain separated from the music I spent over a decade creating, but this is a sacrifice I will have to make to keep Scooter Braun out of my life,” Swift wrote.

Swift then declared that she has begun re-recording her old music with the hope of releasing it in the future, with her fans praising the singer for “taking a stand”.

“Taylor Swift choosing to not be silenced rather than just buying her masters is a huge thing she decided to do because she is willing to keep fighting and take a stand for future artists who might get robbed of their art too,” one fan wrote.

“When will men learn that they will never be able to buy or intimidate or manipulate Taylor Swift into silence and stop trying,” another commented.

“That man tried to silence Taylor Swift as if she doesn’t have a whole self written album called Speak Now,” one fan joked.

Many fans also voiced their excitement at hearing the new recordings of Swift’s previous material, with one follower: “Having a lot of goosebumps now that Taylor Swift started re-recording her albums like reality is sinking in and i am so excited BUT NOT READY because the throwbacks with her vocals now? I am not prepared.”

Read More

How GoldenEye inspired a video game classic

Why printed encyclopedias for children are more important than ever

An oral history of Home Alone