How did Taylor Swift lose rights to her six best-selling albums? Singer claims Big Machine Record Label offered her chance to 'earn' back one OLD album for every NEW one she produced - so she left and joined Universal

• e-mail

Taylor Swift has refused to stay silent about the sale of her entire back catalog of music saying she was 'sad and grossed out' by news of the deal that she called her 'worst case scenario'.

It emerged on Sunday that Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings had purchased Big Machine Label Group from Scott Borchetta, which released all of Swift's studio albums and owns her masters, in a $300 million deal. 

The sale prevents Swift from owning the first six albums in her catalog. 

When Swift left Big Machine and signed with Universal Music Group back in November, the 29-year-old singer said she made peace with that fact her masters would eventually be sold.

But she said she never imagined that Braun would be the one to purchase them and described it as her worst nightmare. Swift has accused Braun of subjecting her to years of manipulative bullying, referencing clashes with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. 

So how did Swift lose the rights to her last six albums? 

Taylor Swift has refused to stay silent about the sale of her entire back catalog of music saying she was 'sad and grossed out' by news of the deal that she called her 'worst case scenario'

Swift signed her deal with Big Machine back in 2005 when she was 15 years old. Under the terms of her deal, which is standard for most artists, the record label owns the rights to her music. 

The music she produced under that deal includes everything from her 2006 self-titled debut album to her 2017 Reputation album. 

It is standard practice in the music industry for an artist to sign away the master rights to their recordings but Swift says she tried to gain ownership of her recordings for several years.

When she announced she had signed with Universal Music group in November, Swift said it was exciting to know that she would own her future master recordings.   

Following the news on Sunday that Big Machine had been acquired by Braun's Ithaca Holdings, Swift posted a scathing Tumblr post claiming that the label didn't offer her the chance to buy her catalog and didn't inform her of the sale. 

She claims that when she was in negotiations with Big Machine prior to her signing with Universal, they only offered her the chance to earn one album back for each new one she produced. 

'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 said. 

'I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta 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. 

It emerged on Sunday that Scooter Braun's (right) Ithaca Holdings had purchased Big Machine Label Group from Scott Borchetta (left), which released all of Swift's studio albums and owns her masters, in a $300 million deal 

She said she knew that re-signing with the group that had managed her since she was 15 would only result in her not owning her future work. 

Swift said learning that Borchetta - who had years earlier pledged loyalty to her - had sold the label to Braun was her 'worst case scenario'. She accused Braun of bullying her at her 'lowest point'.

'This is my worst case scenario. This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term 'loyalty' is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says 'Music has value', he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it,' Swift wrote of the deal.

'When I left my masters in Scott's hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter. Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words 'Scooter Braun' escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to. He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn't want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever.' 

Borchetta, however, claims that Swift has been misleading about the deal and claims she was offered the chance to purchase her work during ongoing negotiations. 

Sources told Variety that Swift was offered at least two offers to buy back her masters but she turned them both down. 

Swift's team has denied these two offers existed and that she was only given the trade-off deal she spoke of in her social media post. 

In a scathing Tumblr post, Taylor Swift said she only learned of the sale Sunday when she woke up and it 'was announced to the world' 

Borchetta outlined the terms of what he called an 'extraordinary' offer to Swift which would have kept her at Big Machine Records and given her ownership of her material, posting documents of the offer he made 

In his own lengthy statement, Borchetta outlined the terms of what he called an 'extraordinary' offer to Swift, which would have kept her at Big Machine Records and given her ownership of her material.

It fell through when she inked a pact with Universal Music Group.

'Taylor had every chance in the world to own not just her master recordings but every video, photograph, everything associated to her career. She chose to leave,' he wrote. 

He went over their interactions during the critical time period in which she switched labels.

Borchetta said Swift's management went over the deal points and relayed them to her before he also talked through the deal with her. 

'100 percent of all Taylor Swift assets were to be transferred to her immediately upon signing the new agreement. We were working together on a new type of deal for our new streaming world that was not necessarily tied to 'albums' but more of a length of time,' he said. 

Borchetta said he and Swift 'remained on very good terms' throughout the negotiation process, and upon her pact with Universal. 

In her social media post on Sunday, Swift said she was thankful she would now own anything she creates. 

'Thankfully, I am now signed to a label that believes I should own anything I create. Thankfully, I left my past in Scott's hands and not my future. And hopefully, young artists or kids with musical dreams will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation. You deserve to own the art you make,' she said.