Scooter Braun has told Taylor Swift fans “it’s time to move on” from their feud.
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In 2019, talent manager Braun made a $300 million acquisition of Swift’s former label Big Machine Label Group. The sale included the recorded masters and ownership of Swift’s first six albums (everything from her 2006 self-titled record up to ‘Reputation’).
Following Ithaca’s acquisition of Big Machine in June 2019, Swift accused Braun in an open letter of “incessant manipulative bullying” and said that she was “sad and grossed out” when it emerged that Braun controlled her master records. Braun later claimed that he had “no malicious intent” and “did everything aboard”. By August of the same year, however, Swift announced she’d be re-recording her first albums.
Their dispute was the subject of Max’s two-part documentary, Taylor Swift vs Scooter Braun: Bad Blood over the summer. Speaking at a Bloomberg Screentime event on Thursday (October 10), Braun said he had watched the documentary recently, although he resisted initially because he thought it would be “another hit piece”.
“I pretty much stayed quiet about this kind of stuff. And my dad called me and my mom, and they were like, we just watched it. We think you should watch it. So I did.”
“Look, it’s five years later. I think, everyone, it’s time to move on,” Braun said (via Deadline), going on to claim there were “a lot of things that were misrepresented” in the documentary.
“I think that it’s important in any kind of conflict that people actually communicate directly with each other. I think doing it out on social media and in front of the whole world is not the place,” he continued.
“I think when people take the time to stand in front of each other have a conversation, they usually find out the monster’s not real, and that hasn’t happened. And that has not happened.”
The comments followed an unexpected endorsement of the ‘Anti-Hero’ singer. When asked which artist he would choose to build a new company around, he said: “I’m going to give you the soundbite you’re looking for, because I just can’t help myself.
“The PR team is going to be like, ‘What?’ [but] I think the artist that’s one that you should always bet on, and is already a huge star, and you can always bet on because they want it all the time, and they do what it takes to be, you know, present all the time, is Taylor Swift.”
Elsewhere, Swift earlier this week donated $5million to Feeding America for the Hurricane Helene and Milton relief efforts. Throughout the course of her career-spanning ‘Eras’ tour, the singer-songwriter has also quietly made major donations to foodbanks across the US and UK.
