The Carlyle Group plans to make big money off its investment in Ithaca Holdings, the company that owns most of Taylor Swift's music. Carlyle nearly doubled its money in Beats Electronics in eight short months and would love for Taylor Swift to give them that level of return.
Business news sources gave considerable deference to Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein and current high level executives. Reports highlighted how much Rubenstein likes Swift's music and how Carlyle will have a successful investment, i.e. profitable exit in resolving the controversy over Swift's music.
How much extra will Swift have to pay the next set of middlemen to get the rights to her creations? Taylor eloquently shared her concerns at the Billboard Women in Music Event where she received "Woman of the Decade" honors.
Swift told the audience that as the “resident loud person,” she wanted to talk about the “new shift that has affected me personally” and “is a potentially harmful force in our industry.” She said it’s the “the unregulated world of private equity coming in and buying up our music as if it's real estate. As if it’s an app or a shoe line.”
She continued, “This just happened to me without my approval, consultation or consent. After I was denied the chance to purchase my music outright, my entire catalog 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. Yet, to this day, none of these investors have ever 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.” (Big Machine Label Group has said Swift was given an opportunity to buy her music back, however, she has said it wasn’t a straight-forward deal.)
Swift went on to say Braun — a music manager who reps megastars including Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber and Demi Lovato — “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.”Swift said that “private equity is what enabled this man, according to his own social media post, that he could ‘buy me,’” before adding, “[I’m] obviously not going willingly.”
There are more rounds to come. Swift's truth telling could wake up people to the harm done by private equity underwriters. The PEU boys don't play nice, so neither should she. One music video could counter decades of PEU public relations, which never resonated with citizens (many of whom actually work for private equity owned companies and have experienced the damage done by the greed and leverage boys).
Update 12-24-19: FT reported "Scooter Braun and The Carlyle Group are currently learning how it feels to be one of Swift’s exes as she seeks to frame a battle over her masters as a fight for artists’ rights. Don’t bet against her."
Update 12-26-19: Swift is in a position to hurt Carlyle and company by re-recording her music. She can also make products sold by Carlyle affiliates less cool.
Update 4-12-21: Swift re-released her Fearless album. Loyal fans are burying the old versions on Spotify.
Following Friday's midnight release of Fearless (Taylor's Version) — for which Swift re-recorded her music after failing to acquire the rights to her early albums two years ago — Swifties launched a campaign to bury the Big Machine version on Spotify.Hopefully the unnamed investment firm can claw-back money from Ithaca and The Carlyle Group. Taylor Swift, like the City of Missoula with Mountain Water, tried many times to buy back the rights to her music.
