She’s riding high on a wave of adulation over a tour so successful, even the Prince of Wales joined the party at London’s Wembley Stadium last weekend.
But DailyMail.com can reveal Taylor Swift’s past feud with music mogul Scooter Braun has now come back to haunt her in the form of a new documentary – Taylor Swift vs Scooter Braun: Bad Blood – that casts doubt on the singer’s version of the events that led up to Braun splashing out $300m on the rights to her back catalog.
Swift has long claimed to be a victim in the story – maintaining she begged to buy the rights to her music from her original label Big Machine Label Group [BMLG] in the run-up to its 2019 sale and only found out about it when it was announced.
But Bad Blood, which premiered on Max on Friday, suggests she was offered the chance to buy her master tapes in 2019 by BMGL boss Scott Borchetta – and again by Braun when he sold them to equity firm Shamrock Holdings in October 2020.
Discovery+ released the first look trailer for the upcoming docuseries Taylor Swift vs Scooter Braun: Bad Blood on Friday. The two-part series follows the longstanding feud between the multi-Grammy winner and the famed artist manager, which the show dubbed ‘a battle of the titans’
The Prince and Princess of Wales posted the selfie (pictured) on their Instagram the following morning with the caption: ‘Thank you Taylor Swift for a great evening!’
Bad Blood t hat casts doubt on the singer’s version of the events that led up to Braun splashing out $300m on the rights to her back catalog
It also calls into doubt the existence of an NDA Swift said she was made to sign and notes that her father Scott netted a $15.1m payday due to the deal after his minority stake in BMLG was sold to Braun.
The long running saga has lasted for nearly 15 years, beginning when Kanye West infamously ambushed Swift on stage at the 2009 MTV Music Awards.
Although West later apologized and the pair became cordial, the feud reignited in 2016 when the rapper released a track called Famous that included the lyric: ‘I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous.’
Swift reacted with horror and made reference to the row as she accepted a Grammy for Best Album days later.
She said: ‘I want to say to all the young women out there: There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.
‘But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you’re going, you’ll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there. And that will be the greatest feeling in the world.’
The docuseries explores the bitter dispute, which came to a head in June 2019. The docuseries recalled how Scott Borchetta — a record exec and founder of Big Machine Records, who started the label in 2005 with Swift as their first signed artist — signed a deal with Scooter Braun
When Braun’s media company, Ithaca Holdings, acquired Borchetta’s Big Machine Label Group for $300 million, he also acquired ownership of Swift’s self-titled debut album, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation
The feud deepened when West’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian came to his defense, claiming Swift had signed off on the lyric and posting a picture of a snake emoji on her social media.
Enter Braun who by then was West’s manager. Although the pair parted ways in 2018, Swift would drop several hints that she believed her acrimonious relationship with the rapper was behind Braun’s purchase of her back catalog.
Braun has always denied this and was no longer managing the rapper when he bought Swift’s back catalog.
Swift has also maintained that she had no knowledge of either sale and was never offered the chance to purchase the rights to her first six albums – instead, vowing to rerecord them to make Shamrock Holdings investment worthless.
But as DailyMail.com previously revealed and Bad Blood confirmed, she was given the opportunity to buy them.
Legal papers filed by former BMLG boss Borchetta and featured in the documentary read: ‘Taylor had every chance in the world to own not just her master recordings, but every video, photograph, everything associated to her career. She chose to leave.’
Last year, an industry insider condemned Swift’s version and said she had weaponized her fans against Braun unfairly.
Braun is also known for working with Kanye West — who infamously ambushed her 2009 VMAs speech
In July 2019, Swift condemned the business deal in a viral Tumblr post, calling it her ‘worst case scenario’ and claimed that she had faced ‘incessant, manipulative bullying’ from Braun for years. But Bad Blood tells a different story
As a montage of video footage from that time played on the screen, various experts were heard chiming in, sharing their thoughts and perspectives on each side of the infamous feud
The source said: With all this coming back up again, the feeling is, enough is enough.
‘It’s time for the truth to come out rather than this version in which Taylor was somehow blindsided and wronged.
‘Her team absolutely knew what was on the table. As for the story that Scooter never offered Taylor a chance to buy her catalog when he came to sell it the following year that is just 100 percent not true.’
According to another source: ‘I think once Taylor crossed the line that day and tweeted that she learned everything at the same time as the rest of the world, she was just going to hold onto that victim narrative because it worked for her. Her fans took it and ran with it.’
