Bad Blood: Taylor Swift NOT A Happy Camper

Taylor Swift is not staying silent over the sale of her masters to Scooter Braun.

In a scathing Tumblr post Sunday, the pop superstar writes she is sad and grossed out that her music catalog now belongs to Braun, whom she accuses of subjecting her to years of incessant and manipulative bullying, referencing clashes with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

“This is my worst case scenario,” Swift writes.

Braun’s Ithaca Holdings announced Sunday that it is acquiring Big Machine Label Group, which released all of Swift’s studio albums and owns her masters. Swift says she learned of the sale Sunday.

In a passionate post on Tumblr, she writes:

“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. 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. 

“Some fun facts about today’s news: I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years. 

“Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it. Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked. 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. 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. 

“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. 

“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. 

“I will always be proud of my past work. But for a healthier option, ‘Lover’ [Swift’s first album through her new deal with Universal Music Group] will be out August 23. 

“Sad and grossed out,
💔
Taylor

Scott Borchetta responds:

In regard to a post earlier today from Taylor, it’s time to set some things straight. https://t.co/OqGI4GoN3P

— Scott Borchetta (@scottborchetta) July 1, 2019

The NYTimes reports Borchetta reportedly owned 60 percent of Big Machine, with minority positions owned by the country artist Toby Keith and Taylor Swift’s father, Scott Swift, a former Merrill Lynch stockbroker.

Swift, who signed to Big Machine at the age of 15, has sold more than 40 million albums on the label, in addition to releasing more than 40 platinum singles. According to a report last year in Billboard, sales and streams of Taylor Swift’s music made up almost 35 percent of the Big Label Machine Group’s market share.