Big Machine Label Group is a Nashville-based collection of record labels founded by Scott Borchetta in 2009.
Its premier label, Big Machine Records, is best known for signing Taylor Swift as a teenager in 2004.
Big Machine Records was founded by Borchetta in September 2004, and went on to form the centerpiece of Big Machine Label Group.
Big Machine went on to release Swift’s first six studio albums via a distribution deal with Universal‘s Republic Records.
Sale to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings
In June 2019, Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings announced that it had acquired Big Machine Label Group for an undisclosed fee.
Sources suggested at the time that the deal cost Ithaca somewhere around $300 million.
The acquisition of Big Machine angered Taylor Swift, who wrote an open letter following the news, in which she claimed that the sale of her masters to Scooter Braun was beyond her “worst nightmares”.
Swift vowed to re-record her biggest hits when she was legally permitted to do so, and commercially release these new masters.
In April 2020, Swift herself suggested that the price-tag paid by Ithaca Holdings for Big Machine Label Group was $330 million.
In November 2020, Shamrock Capital confirmed that it had acquired the master rights to Swift’s first six albums from Ithaca Holdings in a deal reported to be worth $300 million.
Ithaca Holdings kept hold of Big Machine Label Group and other masters and artists signed to the company.Music Business Worldwide