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Scooter Braun Breaks Down Taylor Swift Fallout: “Everyone in the End Won”
In a candid and wide-ranging new interview, music executive Scooter Braun is speaking out — perhaps for the final time — about his high-profile feud with Taylor Swift over the sale of her master recordings. Appearing on Danielle Robay’s Question Everything podcast, Braun called the long-running saga “ancient history” but insisted, “Everyone in the end won.”
The interview marks Scooter Braun’s most extensive public reflection yet on the controversy that has gripped the music industry since 2019, when his company acquired Big Machine Records and, with it, the rights to Taylor Swift’s early catalog. While Swift publicly condemned the move, claiming she was denied a fair opportunity to buy back her masters, Scooter Braun now suggests a different narrative — one where business, art, and strategy all played out in unexpected, and even mutually beneficial, ways.
“It Was Six Years Ago”
Scooter Braun opened up about the sale, the media backlash, and the massive wave of criticism from Taylor Swift’s fanbase, famously dubbed “Swifties.” “You can’t say anything right, and it is what it is,” he said. “They made the horrible miscalculation that I care.”
Taylor Swift Finally Owns Her Music Catalog — Ending a Six-Year Battle for Creative Control
Still, he insists there’s no lingering bitterness. “The only thing I really regret,” Scooter Braun said, “is that it’s easy to have a monster if you never meet them.” He claims he and Taylor Swift only met a few times and never had a meaningful conversation. “If people can sit in front of each other, the monster isn’t real.”
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The Master Plan
From Scooter Braun’s point of view, both sides came out ahead. Swift’s decision to re-record her early albums — a move that many saw as a defiant act of reclamation — ended up boosting streaming numbers for both the new versions and the originals. “All ships rise in a world of streaming,” Braun explained, crediting Swift’s savvy with “the biggest moment of her career.”
Meanwhile, Braun says he and his partners turned a solid profit by selling the catalog to Shamrock Holdings. “We hit every one of our earn-outs,” he said. “So, funny enough, everyone involved in the saga, from a business standpoint, did really well.”
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Beyond the Drama
Scooter Braun also touched on rumors that Taylor Swift’s track “Vigilante Shit” was about him and his ex-wife, Yael Cohen. His take? “Nah.” The former couple are still close, and he credits her with being his “family for life.”
More revealing was Scooter Braun’s admission of a private mental health crisis in 2020. Reeling from his divorce and personal struggles, he described experiencing suicidal thoughts — a wake-up call that led him to pursue therapy, meditation, and inner healing. “It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me,” he said of hitting rock bottom.
As for managing artists again? “Never,” Braun said definitively. “I had a great run… Peace, love, and happy endings.”
