Justin Bieber shared a since-deleted photo via Instagram of him FaceTiming Braun and Kanye West, who was then a client of Braun’s. “Taylor Swift what up,” he captioned the snap. The post came amid Swift’s infamous feud with West.

After Braun’s acquisition of Big Machine made headlines in July 2019, Swift slammed the business deal via Tumblr.

In the lengthy blog post, the musician claimed that “for years,” she’d “pleaded for a chance to own my work” but was instead “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.”

Swift, who became Big Machine’s first client in 2005, continued: “I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, [Big Machine Records founder and CEO] Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future. I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past.”

The 12-time Grammy winner then claimed that she found out Braun had purchased her masters after the deal was made public. “All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years,” she wrote. “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. This is my worst case scenario.”

Swift also included a screenshot of Bieber’s infamous “Taylor Swift what up” Instagram post, writing, “This is Scooter Braun, bullying me on social media when I was at my lowest point.”

That same month, Bieber apologized for the post via Instagram saying that it was “distasteful and insensitive.” He also defended Braun, claiming that the music executive “didn’t have anything to do with” the post. “In all actuality he was the person who told me not to joke like that,” Bieber wrote.

Swift shared an update on the feud and directly asked her fans for help. In a letter shared via Twitter, she claimed that Borchetta and Braun told her she wasn’t allowed to perform any music from her first six albums during her American Music Awards performance.

Later that month, Big Machine denied Swift’s claims in a lengthy statement. “At no point did we say Taylor could not perform on the AMAs,” the label claimed. “In fact, we do not have the right to keep her from performing live anywhere.”

Less than a year and a half after acquiring them, Braun sold Swift’s master rights to Shamrock Holdings for over $300 million. That same month, Swift shut down rumors that she’d purchased her catalog from Braun, revealing that the sale had occurred without her knowledge.

Swift made good on her promise to rerecord her first six albums and released Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in April 2021.

“I’ve spoken a lot about why I’m remaking my first six albums but the way I’ve chosen to do this will hopefully help illuminate where I’m coming from,” she wrote in the album’s prologue letter. “Artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really knows that body of work.”

Swift went on to release Red (Taylor’s Version) in November 2021 and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) in July 2023. In August 2023, she announced that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) will be released in October 2023.

Braun shared his side of the story during an interview for a Variety cover story. “I regret and it makes me sad that Taylor had that reaction to the deal,” he told the outlet, claiming that the details Swift shared about the acquisition were “not based on anything factual.”

He continued: “I don’t know what story she was told. I asked for her to sit down with me several times, but she refused.”

Braun added that he was most hurt by Swift’s characterization of him as a bully. “I’m firmly against anyone ever being bullied. I always try to lead with appreciation and understanding. The one thing I’m proudest of in that moment was that my artists and team stood by me. They know my character and my truth. That meant a lot to me,” he said.

Demi Lovato, who previously defended Braun in July 2019 when Swift called him out for bullying, was one of several high-profile clients to reportedly cut ties with Braun in August 2023 along with Ariana Grande and Bieber.

An insider with knowledge of the situation told Us at the time that “all of Scooter Braun’s clients are under contract and negotiations have been going on for several months as Scooter steps into his larger role as Hybe America CEO.”