Taylor Swift has a plan to make Scooter Braun’s purchase of her body of work irrelevant: The singer is officially rerecording her masters, according to the a new interview with Tracy Smith on CBS Sunday Morning.
Braun manages Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, and more, as well as a producer. Earlier this year, Braun made headlines when he purchased Big Machine Records, the company that owns all of Swift’s master recordings of every one of her songs prior to her seventh album Lover. Swift was devastated over the news, and took to social media to express her anger, calling Braun’s move her “worst case scenario.” She accused Braun of “bullying” her over the years, connecting him to that years-long feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, the latter of whom was once his client.
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"When I left my masters in Scott [Borchetta of Big Machine Records’] hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter," Swift wrote in her post on Tumblr. "Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words ‘Scooter Braun’ escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to. He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever."
Now, however, Swift has told Smith that it is “absolutely” the plan to rerecord her masters. This means that Swift would have new versions of her songs, thus, ideally, making the ones that Braun owns not as important: Fans could choose to purchase Swift’s rerecordings instead of older copies, as could anyone who wishes to use a Swift song in a commercial, movie, or show.
Prior to Swift's confirmation that she would do so, Kelly Clarkson publicly encouraged the idea.
"Just a thought, U should go in & re-record all the songs that U don’t own the masters on exactly how U did them but put brand new art & some kind of incentive so fans will no longer buy the old versions," she wrote on Twitter. "I’d buy all of the new versions just to prove a point."
The interview with Swift and Smith will air Sunday, Aug. 25 at 9 am on CBS.
Refinery29 has reached out to Swift and Braun for comment.
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