Big Machine Records

The Nashville independent that signed a 15-year-old Taylor Swift and owned the masters to her first six albums — masters that were sold twice without her, igniting the highest-profile ownership fight in pop history.

Big Machine Records is an independent country and pop label founded by Scott Borchetta in 2005. Its first signing was Taylor Swift, then 15, in a deal that gave the label ownership of the master recordings for her first six studio albums.

When Big Machine was sold to Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings in 2019 — and the masters sold again in 2020 — Swift's public objection turned an industry-standard contract term into a mainstream conversation about who owns an artist's life's work.

Primary sources

[1]Big Machine Label Group — Big Machine Label Group

Cases on file

Verified2005–2020

Severe

Taylor Swift's masters were sold twice without her (2019–2020)

Taylor Swift signed to Big Machine at 15 in a deal that gave the label her first six albums' masters. In 2019 those masters were sold to Scooter Braun, and in 2020 sold again — both times without her — making her the public face of the artist-ownership fight.

3 sourcesRead the receipts →