Taylor Swift on Thursday night called out private equity as a "harmful force in (the music) industry" in her acceptance speech for Billboard's Woman of the Decade Award.
"The unregulated world of private equity (is) coming in and buying up our music as if it is real estate. As if it's an app or a shoe line," Ms. Swift said. "This just happened to me without my approval, consultation or consent."
She said that after she was unable to buy her music catalog, it was sold to Ithaca Holdings.
Carlyle Group is a minority investor in Ithaca holdings. Carlyle Group spokeswoman Christa Zipf declined to comment.
In June, Ithaca Holdings LLC, a media holding company led by music producer Scooter Braun, bought Big Machine Label Group, an independent record label founded by Scott Borchetta.
The Carlyle Group, which initially invested in Ithaca in 2017, also supported the acquisition as a minority investor out of the firm's $13 billion private equity fund Carlyle Partners VI, which takes controlling interests and minority stakes in six sectors including consumer, media and retail. Jay Sammons, head of Carlyle's global consumer, media and retail team, is on Ithaca's board.
"The fact is that private equity is what enabled this man (Mr. Braun) to think, according to his own social media post, that he could buy me. But I'm obviously not going willingly," she said.
