The Carlyle Group financed Ithaca Holding's purchase of Taylor Swift's music. Variety reported Ithaca flipped those master rights for a big payday.
Some 17 months after Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings LLC acquired Big Machine Label Group and all of its recorded music assets, sources tell Variety the veteran manager and entrepreneur has sold the master rights to Taylor Swift’s first six albums. The buyer, an investment fund, is as yet unknown but the deal is believed to be north of $300 million and closed in the last two weeks. Some insiders speculate the value could be as high as $450 million once certain earn-backs are factored in.
Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein told Fox Business Maria Bartirome he "remained hopeful that the parties would be able to reach an agreement."
I do think there'll be a resolution of that in the near future," Rubenstein said. "Hopefully, [Swift] can continue to do very good music, but it's something that is more complicated than my being able to resolve it right here."
That was December 2019. Swift shared her efforts to purchase rights to her music. Swift wrote on social media to her more than 87 million
Twitter followers.
"As you know, for the past year I've been actively trying to regain ownership of my master recordings. With that goal in mind, my team attempted to enter into negotiations with Scooter Braun,""Scooters team wanted me to sign an ironclad NDA stating I would never say another word about Scooter Braun unless it was positive, before we could even look at the financial records of BMLG (which is always the first step in a purchase of this nature.""I would have to sign a document that would silence me forever before I could even have a chance to bid on my own work. My legal team said that this is absolutely NOT normal, and they've never seen an NDA like this presented unless it was to silence an assault accuser by paying them off. He would never even quote my team a price. These master recordings were not for sale to me."
The City of Missoula, Montana tried multiple times to buy Mountain Water before and during Carlyle ownership. It took a condemnation lawsuit for Missoula to buy their local water supplier. Swift does not have such a remedy.
Taylor's Army no longer can boycott Golden Goose sneakers or Supreme streetwear and inflict financial pain on Rubenstein's rapscallions. Carlyle flipped both investments for more big paydays.
PEU Shamrock Holdings informed Swift of their purchase.
Swift said that she was only made aware of Braun selling her masters after she received a letter from a private equity company, Shamrock Holdings, letting her know they had purchased her music, videos and album art."This was the second time my music had been sold without my knowledge." Swift continued. "The letter told me that they wanted to reach out before the sale to let me know, but that Scooter Braun had required that they make no contact with me or my team, or the deal would be off."Swift also posted a photo of a letter she wrote to Shamrock Holdings.
Carlyle is consistent in their use of leverage in their greedy pursuits. If they can roll Taylor Swift multiple times the average American stands no chance.
Sadly, Carlyle has targeted the coronavirus for profits. More cases, more serious illness, the more Carlyle cashes in. President Trump provided a wide lane for The Carlyle Group to profit from American suffering.
Update 11-20-20: Carlyle plans to flip European lingerie makers Twin Set and Hunkemoller. JP Morgan is assisting with the sale of both companies. Swift's potential boycott pool is shrinking.
Update 12-10-20: Swift will surprise release her second album this year, Evermore. The article stated:
Swift is also currently re-recording her first six albums, amid a dispute over the master recordings with music mogul Scooter Braun. She told an American Music awards audience in November, via a video message: “The reason I’m not there tonight is I’m re-recording all of my old music in the studio we originally recorded it.”
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.
