Taylor Swift’s Carlyle Plea Showcases Private Equity’s Reach

  • Carlyle owns a stake in the pop icon’s former music label
  • Alternative asset managers have bought into show business

Taylor Swift

Photographer: China News Service/VCG via Getty Images

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Taylor Swift’s feud with her record label reveals a little-known fact about the entertainment business: the outsized role private equity plays in funding its biggest stars.

Swift asked Carlyle Group in a tweet on Thursday to help her as she battles to secure ownership of albums she recorded with her previous label. The Washington-based buyout firm helped finance celebrity manager Scooter Braun’s acquisition of Big Machine Label Group LLC.