I'm sure you'll have heard about the drama that's gone down between Taylor Swift, her former record label boss Scott Borchetta, and celebrity manager Scooter Braun over the past couple of days.
In case you've missed the news, it was announced Sunday that Scooter's company had acquired Taylor's former record label, Big Machine Records, for $300 million.
Later that day, Taylor shared a lengthy Tumblr post in which she explained that Big Machine and Scooter would now own the master recordings of all six of her albums "in perpetuity". She described the news as her "worst nightmare".
In the note, Taylor explained that at the end of her 10-year contract with Big Machine, Scott gave her the option to "earn" back the rights to the master recordings of her first six albums by signing another decadelong contract. She claimed she wasn't given the chance to make a bid for the recordings herself; after she heard that Scott was planning to sell the company after she re-signed, she decided to go to a different record label — one that would allow her to own her work.
Taylor went on to claim that Scooter had "bullied" her for years, citing the fact that he managed Kanye West at the time of their infamous 2016 feud, which led to her taking an extended break from the public eye.
"Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy," Taylor wrote. "Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it."
Shortly after she published the Tumblr post, many celebrities jumped to her defence with public messages of support. Brendon Urie, who collaborated with Taylor on her first single outside Big Machine, said that her post had "[broken his] heart", and described the music industry as "toxic".
Halsey said that the news "turned [her] guts", adding that Taylor "deserves to own painstaking labour of her heart".
🦋 @taylorswift13
And Taylor's longtime friend Cara Delevingne hit out at Justin after he wrote a lengthy Instagram caption defending Scooter and calling Taylor a "bully".
However, many of Taylor's fans posted on Tumblr their disappointment that most of the people defending her were women. Some called the silence from male musicians "deafening".
And numerous fans said that the silence was especially disappointing since Taylor has used her platform to promote artists such as Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes, and Troye Sivan over the years.
In fact, Ed was the person fans were most disappointed with. Taylor offered him a slot supporting her on the Red tour back in 2013 after she discovered and fell in love with his music. The pair became firm friends and have gone on to collaborate on two tracks; many fans have suggested that Ed wouldn't have enjoyed the same level of success in the US if it weren't for Taylor.
And before too long, fans began spamming Ed's Instagram posts asking why he hadn't spoken out.
Well, Ed has now responded to a fan who stepped in to defend him on Instagram. Ed explained that while he hasn't acknowledged the situation publicly, he has been in contact with Taylor privately.
"I've been speaking directly to her, like I always do," Ed wrote.
And while some fans thanked Ed for showing his support...
...others were still frustrated that he hadn't chosen to publicly speak about it to effect change on a larger scale.
