Why Taylor Swift is bringing private equity firm The Carlyle Group into her war against Scooter Braun and her old record label (2024)

She also said that that Braun and Borchetta told her she could use her older music in the future if she agreed to stand down from plans to re-record her first six albums.

Until now, Swift had largely kept her anger over the saga to Braun and Borchetta, but on Thursday she included a new party in the narrative: The Carlyle Group.

The Carlyle Group is a private equity behemoth in the US, with more than $220 billion under management, and played a key role in the sale of Swift's back catalogue to Braun.

In her post on Thursday, Swift asked The Carlyle Group for help, saying that they "put up the money" Braun used to buy Big Machine, and consequently, all Swift's music before her current album "Lover."

"I'm especially asking for help from The Carlyle Group, who put up the money for the sale of my music to these two men," she wrote, having asked fans to "let Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun know how you feel about this."

"I just want to be able to perform MY OWN music. That's it," she wrote.

Big Machine disputed Swift's version of events in a statement Friday, saying: "As Taylor Swift's partner for over a decade, we were shocked to see her tumblr statements yesterday based on false information.

"At no point did we say Taylor could not perform on the AMAs or block her Netflix special. In fact, we do not have the right to keep her from performing live anywhere."

The Carlyle Group helped fund Scooter Braun's deal to buy Big Machine

Carlyle's involvement in Braun's $300 million deal to buy Big Machine is complex, but at the time the deal was announced, the group said it was "supporting" Braun, and his company Ithaca Holdings, in their purchase of Big Machine, which also owns the rights to music by country star Rascal Flatts.

Carlyle first invested in Ithaca Holdings in 2017, and according to a June story from The Wall Street Journal, Ithaca is now valued at $800 million.

In an interview with Business Insider's Casey Sullivan in July, a few days after the deal was announced, Jay Sammons, head of consumer, media and retail at Carlyle, said the company had made a minority investment in the deal.

"Not every private equity firm, I would say, is willing to do that," he told Business Insider of the investment.

The deal, Sammons told Business Insider at the time, was part of a growing trend that Carlyle had identified, namely that celebrities now have a much larger influence over "the consumer world" than before.

"We have seen a big shift around the influence that celebrities and artists have over the consumer world, and we want to invest capital with great partners who help us capitalize on those macro industry trends," he said.

As Sullivan noted in July, record labels have long been attractive investments for private equity houses, thanks to the long term nature of their returns. Popular artists tend to have extremely long careers, and can make their investors money for several decades.

The Carlyle Group declined to comment on Swift's Thursday comments when contacted by Business Insider.

What is Swift's feud with Scooter Braun about?

In June 2019, it was announced that Braun had completed a deal to buy Big Machine Records. Swift recorded her first six studio albums — "Taylor Swift," "Fearless," "Speak Now," "Red," "1989," and "Reputation" — with the label, before moving to her current label, Republic.

When Braun closed the deal to buy Big Machine, he inherited the rights to those six albums. Swift was unable to own her first six albums, released from 2006 to 2017, because of a long-term record contract she signed when she was 15.

Big Machine Records apparently made it clear she couldn't buy back her records in 2015 when Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel was in talksto buy the company — she could only "earn" them back one at a time for every subsequent album she made. Instead, she decided to walk away from the label.

"I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future," she wrote in a Tumblr post at the time the deal was announced.

"I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past. Music I wrote on my bedroom floor and videos I dreamed up and paid for from the money I earned playing in bars, then clubs, then arenas, then stadiums."

Lauren Frias and Lindsay Dodgson contributed reporting to this story.