Taylor Swift’s enemy Scooter Braun is no longer a music manager
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Scooter Braun is starting a new chapter.
The record executive who made headlines over a dispute with Taylor Swift that prompted the pop singer to re-record her first six albums has announced his retirement as a music executive after 23 years.
Braun shared the update on Monday in a lengthy Instagram post reflecting on his career.
“I have been fortunate enough to live a life like ‘Forrest Gump’, witnessing and living the journeys of some of the world’s most extraordinary talents,” he wrote. “I constantly pinch myself and ask myself how I got here. And after 23 years, that chapter as a music executive has come to an end.”
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Braun has worked with some of the biggest names in music, including Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.
But last summer, reports surfaced that many of Braun’s celebrity clients were parting ways with him. Puck News reported that Bieber and Braun, who had worked together throughout the singer’s career, “hadn’t spoken in months,” and Billboard and People reported that Grande was parting ways with Braun.
At the time, a music industry source familiar with the situation told USA TODAY that rumors that Braun had been abandoned by his celebrity clients were false, insisting he was simply “embracing his larger role” as CEO of HYBE America.
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HYBE America is the U.S. division of Hybe, the South Korean entertainment company known for managing boy band BTS. Braun became sole CEO of HYBE America last year.
In his statement Monday, Braun said his decision to step down from management was due to a desire to spend more time with his children, adding that he needed to be “a father first, CEO second, and no longer a manager,” he wrote.
Braun also said his new chapter “became a reality” last summer when “one of my biggest clients and friends told me he wanted to spread his wings and go in a new direction,” without mentioning the client’s name.
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“We’ve been through so much together over the last decade, but instead of being hurt, I saw it as a sign,” Braun wrote. “See, life doesn’t give you YOUR plan, it gives you GOD’S plan.”
The Instagram post included shout-outs to many artists Braun has worked with, including Bieber and Grande, for whom he said he would “continue to root.”
Braun’s decision comes five years after his high-profile dispute with Swift, which led to the singer’s re-recordings of “Taylor’s Version.” In 2019, Swift objected to Braun taking possession of the master recordings of her first six albums after taking over her old record label, Big Machine Records. She accused Braun of “incessant, manipulative bullying” and announced that she would re-record those albums so that she would own the masters.
Before Swift completes this project, she has to re-release two more albums: “Reputation” and “Taylor Swift.”
In 2022, Braun told MSNBC that Swift had “every right” to re-record her albums, but criticized her for “using a fan base as a weapon against him.” “You don’t do that,” he said. “It’s very dangerous.”
Braun later sold Swift’s masters to private equity firm Shamrock Capital Content Fund. A documentary about the masters dispute, titled “Taylor Swift vs Scooter Braun: Bad Blood,” will premiere on Max this month.
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