Taylor Swift Slams Scooter Braun

Earlier today it was announced that music mogul Scooter Braun had acquired Scott Borchetta's Big Machine Label Group for a reported $300 million dollar. The deal includes the ownership of Taylor Swift's master recordings for records released under Big Machine Records . Swift has now responded to the news with a blistering note posted to social media. "I learned about Scooter Braun's purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world," the pop star wrote. "All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I've received at his hands for years." Swift went on to cite several past negative experiences with Braun: "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," Swift added. "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." Last last year, in advance of her latest album Lover, Swift left big Machine Records and signed with Republic Records/Universal Music Group. She said prior to leaving, "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." "When I left my masters in Scott's hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them," Swift continued. "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."


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