Taylor Swift Asks Fans To Help Fight Scooter Braun
JAKARTA - Taylor Swift's move to perform her old songs seems increasingly difficult. Scooter Braun and label president Big Machine refused to give Taylor the rights and masters for the albums.
After leaving Big Machine Records in 2018, Taylor joined Republic Records. Big Machine Records was Taylor's first label until the Reputation album which was released in 2017.
Then, in June, Scooter Braun, a producer known for having successfully launched successful singers, acquired the Big Machine label which was backed up by the Carlyle Group, a company that received an injection of funds from the Bin Laden family. Taylor, who received the announcement, told in a Tumblr post that Braun bullied him in the past when he experienced sexual violence.
The president of the Big Machine label also refused to give Taylor the rights and masters for the albums. This rejection led to Taylor's plan to re-record all of his albums in 2020. This decision was fully supported by Swifties (as Taylor Swift's fans) regretted the rejection by the label that made Taylor's name.
After the plan was announced, Friday, November 15, Taylor uploaded a long article via his Twitter account. He wrote: “Guys - it was recently announced the American Music Awards would be giving me the Artist of the Decade award at this year's celebration. I've been planning to perform a medley of my hits for decades for this event. Now Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun say I'm not allowed to sing old songs on television because they claim it will re-record my music before it's allowed to start next year.
Besides - this is not the way I plan to tell you - Netflix has been making documentaries about my life for the past few years. Scott and Scooter refused to use my old songs or recorded performances for this project, even though there's no mention of Big Machine Records or anything in the film.
Scott Borchetta tells my team that they are allowed to use my music if I do this: If I agree not to re-record copycat versions of my songs next year (which is something I can do legally and be permitted to) and also tell my team that I stopped talking about him (Scott) and Scooter Braun. I feel that sharing what I went through can change the level of awareness for other artists and potentially help them avoid the same treatment. The message sent to me was clear. Basically, be a good girl and be quiet. Or you will be punished.
This is wrong. These men did not intervene when writing the songs. They have done nothing to build the relationship I have with the fans. So this is where I ask your help.
Please let Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun tell you how you feel about this. Scooter also manages several artists that I really believe about artists and their work. Please have them help with this - I wish they could speak of a man exercising tyrannical control over someone who just wants to play the music he writes. I ask specifically for the help of The Carlyle Group, who gave money to sell my music to these people.
I just want to be able to put on my music. Only that. I've tried this privately through my team but it didn't solve anything. Now, my appearances at AMAs, Netflix documentaries and recorded shows I plan to play through November 2020 are question marks. I love you and I think you should know what's going on. - Taylor. "
Don't know what else to do pic.twitter.com/1uBrXwviTS
- Taylor Swift (@ taylorswift13) November 14, 2019
Taylor's upload received support from various public figures. Halsey, be the first to talk about this. Through his Instagram Story, he said; "This is evil. This is punishment. It's trying to silence Taylor to speak what he thinks. "
American indie pop band Echosmith wrote “We are with you & love you @ taylorswift13”. Gigi Hadid's model also wrote “Scott and Scooter, you guys know the right thing to do. Taylor and his fans deserve to celebrate music !! ”.
Taylor's latest album, Lover is an album that has full rights over him. This album sold well and all the songs in the album entered the Billboard music charts. The hashtags #IStandWithTaylor and #JusticeForTaylor immediately became the first numbers shortly after Taylor's upload went viral.
Today, Taylor has just released a song called Beautiful Ghosts as part of the soundtrack for the film Cats. Together with Andrew Lloyd Webber, Taylor produced this song. She is also set to make an appearance in the film Cats as Bombalurina.
Cats will be released on December 12, one day before Taylor Swift's birthday.