Scooter Braun Talks About The Taylor Swift Dispute

Manager Scooter Braun says he would rather sit down and talk with Taylor Swift than add to their highly publicized, social media-fueled disagreement.

Scooter Braun

Braun addressed the half-year-long music titan dispute with Swift, without referring to the pop star by name, at Variety's 2019 Entertainment Industry Conference Thursday — a disagreement that has led to death threats received at his workplace, according to USAToday.

“There’s a lot of things being said and a lot of different opinions, yet the principals haven’t had a chance to speak to each other; there’s a lot of confusion," said Braun, alluding to Swift but declining to go into details.

"It’s just not my style. I just think we live in a time of toxic division and people thinking that social media is the appropriate place to air out on each other and not have conversations. I don’t like politicians doing it. I don’t like anybody doing it," Braun said.

"If that means that I’ve got to be the bad guy longer, I’ll be the bad guy longer, but I’m not going to participate," Braun added.

The industry heavyweight Braun made waves in late June when Swift accused him of "incessant, manipulative bullying" after the 38-year-old paid $300 million to acquire Big Machine Label Group – and, by extension, the masters of Swift's music. In a lengthy Tumblr post, Swift called the deal her "worst case scenario."

"People need to communicate, and when people are able to communicate, I think they work things out," Braun said, blaming "miscommunications" for any problems.

"I believe that people are fundamentally good," said Braun, who mentioned that issues "discussed behind closed doors (can be) figured out pretty easily, and it’s something I’ve wanted to do for six months."

Braun said the public debate has been difficult, even alluding to death threats from Swift fans.

One bright side to the dispute is that Braun says it had shown him who his friends are in the industry. Some "friends" turned their backs on him in tough times.