Taylor Swift makes withering speech about Scooter Braun while accepting Billboard’s Woman of the Decade

‘He thought he could buy me. But I’m obviously not going willingly’

Taylor Swift made a public condemnation of music manager Scooter Braun in a withering speech at Billboard’s Women in Music event, where she was honoured with the Woman of the Decade award.

The pop star first spoke out against Braun, who manages artists including Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, after his company bought her former label Big Machine, along with the masters for her first six albums.

She accused Braun of “bullying” her for years and has since confirmed plans to re-record at least some of her music from those six albums.

In her first public comments about the incident since Braun posted an open letter inviting her to “speak directly and respectfully”, Swift called out the “unregulated world of private equity coming in and buying our music as if it’s real estate – as if it’s an app or a shoe line”.

“This just happened to me without my approval, consultation or consent,” she said. “After I was denied the chance to purchase my music outright, my entire catalogue was sold to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings in a deal that I’m told was funded by the Soros family, 23 Capital, and the Carlyle Group.”

She continued: “Yet, to this day, none of these investors have bothered to contact me or my team directly – to perform their due diligence on their investment. On their investment in me. To ask how I might feel about the new owner of my art, the music I wrote, the videos I created, photos of me, my handwriting, my album designs.

“And of course, Scooter never contacted me or my team to discuss it prior to the sale or even when it was announced. I’m fairly certain he knew exactly how I would feel about it, though, and let me just say that the definition of toxic male privilege in our industry is people saying ‘but he’s always been nice to me’ when I’m raising valid concerns about artists and their right to own their music. And of course he’s nice to you – if you’re in this room, you have something he needs.

“The fact is that private equity enabled this man to think, according to his own social media post, that he could ‘buy me’. But I’m obviously not going willingly. Yet the most amazing thing was to discover that it would be the women in our industry who would have my back and show me the most vocal support at one of the most difficult times, and I will never, ever forget it. Like ever.”

23 Capital responded to Swift’s comments in a statement: “23 Capital has a history of working with clients across the music industry including artists, managers, songwriters, music publishers and record labels to meet their commercial needs by providing innovative finance and capital solutions, often facilitating touring and recording, as well as enabling artists to retain their IP and publishing rights and facilitating the acquisition of master recordings.

“It would be inappropriate to comment on specific details relating to the Ithaca/BMLG deal, however we are keen to highlight that our global team of music and entertainment specialists work across the music industry to support creativity and flexibility.”