Taylor Swift has the chance to reclaim her original masters with the help of an unlikely source

Taylor Swift is reportedly receiving behind-the-scenes assistance to buy back her recordings from none other than retired music mogul Scooter Braun.

In a surprising turn of events, Braun, with whom Swift has long been locked in a bitter feud, is trying to “encourage” Shamrock Capital to sell her the master recordings of her first six studio albums, according to Page Six sources.

“The team at Shamrock want to make sure that Taylor has knowledge that they are trying to put this deal to her, as they are not sure that she was ever offered them the first time around,” the outlet reported.

It’s estimated that, should Swift decide to go ahead with the purchase, she would likely have to shell out between $600 million to $1 billion, Clayton Durant, founder of the music consulting firm CAD Management, told the tabloid.

The Independent understands that Swift has no knowledge of Braun’s supposed involvement in such a deal. The Independent has contacted Braun’s representatives for comment.

Braun, 43, initially gained ownership of Swift’s six-album catalog in 2019, when one of his companies, Ithaca Holdings LLC, infamously purchased Big Machine Records, the label the “Cruel Summer” singer had been signed to from 2006 to 2018.

Along with ownership of the company, Braun also gained rights to the master recordings of all the music Swift had created during her time with the label. This included her first six albums: Taylor Swift (2006), Fearless (2008), Speak Now (2010), Red (2012), 1989 (2014) and Reputation (2017).

This meant that anybody who wanted to license any of Swift’s old songs for a movie or TV show would have to get Braun’s permission and pay him a fee.

The sale caused major furor at the time as Swift claimed she had begged to buy her own work outright, but was denied the chance.

“For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work. Instead I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in,” she wrote on her Tumblr account in June 2019. “I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta [CEO of Big Machine Records] would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future.

“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,” she continued, explaining that she, too, had only learned about Braun’s purchase of her masters when it was announced to the world.

“All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years,” she added. “Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”

In November 2020, Braun sold the masters to investment fund Shamrock Capital in a deal believed to be more than $300 million. Braun later reflected on Swift’s reaction to his acquisition of her masters, telling Variety in 2021 that it was “very confusing and not based on anything factual.”

“I don’t know what story she was told,” he said. “I asked for her to sit down with me several times, but she refused. I offered to sell her the catalog back and went under NDA, but her team refused. It all seems very unfortunate.”

Since August 2019, Swift has been working to re-record her early albums. So far, she’s released Fearless (Taylor's Version), Red (Taylor's Version), Speak Now (Taylor's Version) and 1989 (Taylor's Version).