Taylor first announced that she would be recording her first six albums in August 2019, following Big Machine Records – and thus the master recordings she left behind when she signed to a new label in 2018 – through Scooter Braun’s company, Ithaca Holdings, were obtained.
In a post on her Tumblr account, Taylor called the move her ‘worst nightmare’, referring to the ‘incessant, manipulative bullying’ she experienced according to Braun and his clients, including Kanye West and Justin Bieber.
Braun’s acquisition of her masters meant that he and his company, if Taylor’s music was licensed or streamed, would make a profit from it. And so, Taylor decided, she would refuse to license her original music for use in movies, TV shows and commercials, and rather release the recorded versions of the albums Braun now owns in order to make any profit he makes from could make her work, reduce.