Scooter Braun reignites Taylor Swift feud after "weaponizing a fanbase" comments

29 April 2022, 17:33

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By Jazmin Duribe

Scooter also said he had "zero interest" in saying anything disparaging about Taylor.

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Scooter Braun slammed artists that "weaponise" their fandoms during a conversation about Taylor Swift's masters.

In case you're not up to speed, Taylor is currently rerecording her first six albums so that she will officially own her music after her former label, Big Machine Label Group Records, didn't allow her to buy her masters. As of April 2022, Taylor has released Red (Taylor's Version) and Fearless (Taylor's Version).

Back in 2019, the 'Bad Blood' singer explained why she left Big Machine, claiming the label and CEO Scott Borchetta would only let her have her masters if she produced even more albums for the label in a scathing Tumblr post. Scooter, who manages huge names like Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber and Demi Lovato, then acquired Taylor's masters when he purchased Big Machine. In November 2020, Scooter sold Taylor's masters to Shamrock Holdings for a reported $300 million.

Scooter Braun reignites Taylor Swift feud after "weaponizing a fanbase" comments. Picture: Alamy

It was a huge scandal at the time and Scooter said that he feared for his family's safety because he had been receiving threats from Taylor's fandom.

Now in a new interview with MSNBC on Wednesday (Apr 27), Scooter has said that he actually supports Taylor's right to rerecord her albums and, although he didn't name her directly, he added that he didn't appreciate big artists "weaponising" their fans against someone.

"I wish her nothing but well, I have zero interest in saying anything bad about her because I've never said anything bad about her in the past and I won't start to now," Scooter explained.

"The only thing I disagree with is weaponising a fanbase. The artists I work with have very large fan bases. You don't do that. It's very dangerous. There's people in that fan base who have mental health issues. There's families involved and I think that's very, very dangerous […] I think that's a very dangerous thing. There's a responsibility with a fanbase."

Scooter was then asked: "And you think that has happened?" and he replied, "That's all I'll say about that."

Watch Scooter's interview here.

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Scooter also said he "completely understood where she was coming from" and he had tried to negotiate with Taylor before purchasing her masters, but he thought she was not interested, having signed with Universal Music Group.

He continued: "I think there's a lot of facts out there, but at the end of the day, I think artists should actually have ownership and they should play a role. All artists have royalties coming to them from their masters, and if they want an opportunity to buy them, they should have that opportunity and I'm completely open to that conversation. I will also say though, to have that conversation you have to sit in front of someone and have that conversation. You need to sit in front of someone and have dialogue."