Let's get right to it. It was announced today that Scooter Braun acquired Taylor Swift's catalog for $300 million from Scott Borchetta.
According to Billboard, "When completed, the deal will create yet another independent music company powerhouse with multiple capabilities and income streams through the Big Machine record label operations and School Boy Records, the recently acquired Atlas Music Publishing and the to be acquired Big Machine Music, and SB Projects, the artist management and services company."
Obviously, this is a heartbreaking scenario for Taylor Swift, who wrote or co-wrote all the songs in her record-breaking catalog.
On Sunday, she reflected on Scooter acquiring her catalog in a gut-wrenching letter on Tumblr. The letter is lengthy, but it's worth the read.
"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," she said.
"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."
"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. (See photo) 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."
She ended the letter, explaining why she spoke out:
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 will be out August 23.
Sad and grossed out,
💔
Taylor
I'm so proud of Taylor. 2019 is the year she's speaking out, speaking up, and not taking any shit. Good for you, Taylor!
