To kick off July, Taylor Swift called out celebrity manager Scooter Braun after he acquired her discography. Hitting Tumblr, Swift stated she was “sad and grossed out” at the fact that her albums are now owned by the man who provided her with “incessant, manipulative bullying” over the years.
The acquisition by Braun was one of the major pieces of news online over the weekend. Braun purchased Big Machine Label Group LLC, which would now make him the owner of Swift’s catalog, in addition to Reba McEntire, Sheryl Crow, Florida Georgia Line, Lady Antebellum and more.
“For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work,” Swift began. “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.”
Swift states she has been bullied by Braun throughout the years and would call back incidents with other celebrities to compare the level of bullying Braun issued her.
“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.”
Braun represents both Kanye West and Justin Bieber.
“This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept,” she wrote. “And when that man says ‘Music has value,’ he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it.”
Controversial in her own right, Iggy Azalea issued some thoughts regarding why she decided to make sure she owned her masters.
And this is why I’m so happy to own my master for this new album, they really do ppl crazy dirty on ownership of their intellectual property in the biz. https://t.co/RtyN37yEvQ
— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) June 30, 2019
In reference to the above Instagram post, Bieber would apologize for the moment that Swift feels like is bullying but then let her know how he felt about her attempt to paint Braun as a villain.
I have to be honest though it was my caption and post that I screenshoted of scooter and Kanye that said ‘taylor swift what up’ he didnt have anything to do with it and it wasnt even a part of the conversation in all actuality he was the person who told me not to joke like that.”
From there, Bieber let his true feelings out out:
“As the years have passed we haven’t crossed paths and gotten to communicate our differences, hurts or frustrations. So for you to take it to social media and get people to hate on scooter isn’t fair. What were you trying to accomplish by posting that blog? seems to me like it was to get sympathy u also knew that in posting that your fans would go and bully scooter.”
The Blast details Bieber isn’t the only one to protect Braun, his wife, Yael Cohen Braun, also spoke against the issues Swift brought toward Scooter.
Meanwhile, Scott Borchetta, head of Big Machine, revealed that Swift did know about the sale, posting a contract that Taylor signed, which also showcased the opportunity she had to receive all of her music.
