With Taylor Swift regaining the rights to her masters, Scooter Braun is back in the headlines. The 42-year-old former music manager is most widely renowned for his very public beef with Swift, which eventually culminated in his premature retirement from music in 2024.
So how did a guy from Connecticut become one of the world’s most divisive figures in the music industry, with a wealth of songs written about him by the most famous artist in the world?
Who is Scooter Braun?
Braun got his start in the music industry organizing after parties for artists’ tours. He went on to work his way up the industry in various capacities before he hit the jackpot when he signed a then 13-year-old Justin Bieber, after stumbling upon one of his videos on YouTube. With one of the world’s biggest stars on his resumé, Braun went on to sign Ariana Grande, Kanye West, Demi Lovato, and J Balvin.
What kicked off the beef?
Braun waded into hot water in 2019, when he purchased Big Machine Label Group, the record company Taylor Swift was previously signed with which still owned the rights to the majority of her catalog. At the time, Swift herself had been looking to purchase them, and took to Tumblr upon learning about the acquisition to read the deal to filth. That same year, she took to the platform to claim that Braun was attempting to prevent her from performing her music at the 2019 AMS. “I’m hoping that maybe they can talk some sense into the men who are exercising tyrannical control over someone who just wants to play the music.” she wrote. And the beef extended well beyond Swift: a wealth of celebrities came to her defence, while Braun’s former client Todrick Hall took to Twitter to share his own experience with the producer, Tweeting, “he is an evil person whose only concern is his wealth and feeding his disgusting ego. I believe he is homophobic and I know from his own mouth that he is not a Swift fan." Swift’s infamously impassioned fans also turned against Braun, with him claiming to have received death threats. Meanwhile, a litany of Braun’s clients came to his defense, from Demi Lovato to Justin Bieber.
The music industry is tight-knit — did Swift already have a history with Braun?
In short, yes. When Ye non-consensually featured a naked wax figure of her in his Famous music video, he was Braun’s client (Braun might be the only person Swift hates more than Ye, fr). So it makes sense that she had such a visceral reaction to someone in Ye’s sphere acquiring her life’s work.
Braun’s downfall
In 2020, Braun sold Swift’s catalogue to Shamrock Capital—again allegedly knowing that she wanted to acquire it. So Swift began re-recording all of her albums, dubbing them “Taylor’s version,” so that fans could listen to her discography without the profits going to a conglomerate that had nothing to do with her. She also wrote a whole host of songs which seemed to be shading Braun, like Vigilante Shit, in which she allegedly references a lawsuit in which Braun was involved, and his divorce with his wife. ("Picture me thick as thieves with your ex-wife," she taunts.
At the same time, Braun’s clients' loyalty began to wane. In 2020, Ye sided with Swift regarding the feud, stressing the importance of artists owning the rights to their own music. “I’m going to personally see to it that Taylor Swift gets her masters back. Scooter is a close family friend,” he Tweeted. Then in 2023, Braun officially lost Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato as clients. The following year, he officially retired from music management.
Braun’s name is now doing the rounds once again, as this past weekend, Swift officially bought back her masters from Shamrock Records. Braun’s response? “I am happy for her,” per Today.com. Tbf, the whole feud has had an upside: it's sparked conversation surrounding how much autonomy artists have over their music. As Swift wrote in the letter announcing the acquisition: "Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recordings in their record contract because of this fight, I'm reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen."
Featured image via Getty©
More on Culted
See: Wait, Young Thug’s handing out spiders for album promo?
See: Damson Idris features in Tommy Hilfiger’s new APXGP collection
