Steven Tyler, 71, is in full support of Taylor Swift, 30, and the steps she’s taken to fight for songwriters’ rights. The Aerosmith frontman said nothing but positive comments when asked how he felt about Taylor and her battle with Scooter Braun over owning the rights of her own music and also mentioned how it reminds him of an act that was passed into law in 2018. “I think it’s the most beautiful thing. Dina LaPolt passed the Music Modernization Act just for that very reason so that people can sing and play and even get paid, maybe,” he EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife at his Grammys viewing party in Los Angeles, CA on Jan. 26. “So, we went right for the neck. And she’s doing the same and so I look up to her.”
The Music Modernization Act that Steven mentioned was signed into law to modernize copyright-related issues for music and other audio recordings due to new technology such as digital streaming. It contains three separate bills, including the Music Modernization Act, which focuses on licensing details with downloading and streaming, the CLASSICS Act, which focuses on recordings, and the Allocation for Music Producers Act, which goes into detail about producers’ royalties.
Taylor’s public messages and speeches about her struggles with her own music is definitely a reminder of why the Music Modernization Act is so important to many artists, including Steven and his successful band, in the music industry and also sheds light on what still needs to be done. After it was publicly announced that businessman Scooter, who helped Justin Bieber get his breakthrough record deal and managed successful artists like Ariana Grande, purchased the “Lover” singer’s former record label, Big Machine Records, and therefore owned the rights to her first six albums, she took to social media to reveal her devastation over the fight for her rights in owning her own music.
“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,” Taylor wrote in a Tumblr post on June 30, 2019. “I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta (CEO of Big Machine Records) 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.”
Despite the fact that Scooter and Scott denied Taylor’s claims while making their own, which stated that she was given an opportunity to own her own music but refused, Taylor again called them out in a tweet that featured photos of a lengthy statement in Nov. The statement claimed that Scooter and Scott were not letting her use the music from her first six albums in her upcoming performance at the American Music Awards and in a soon-to-be-released Netflix documentary about her life.
“Guys — it’s been announced recently that the American Music Awards will be honoring me with the Artist of the Decade Award at this year’s ceremony. I’ve been planning to perform a medley of my hits throughout the decade on the show. Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun have now said that I’m not allowed to perform my old songs on television because they claim that would be re-recording my music before I’m allowed to next year,” part of the statement read.
Soon after Taylor’s message went viral, Scooter again denied the claims, explaining he can’t stop her in performing what she wants, and a reported deal was eventually reached that ultimately let Taylor sing those old songs during her time on stage at the awards ceremony on Nov. 24, 2019. She also opened her performance with her new song “The Man”, which is all about how different she’d be treated in the industry and beyond if she was a man, so it definitely made an indirect but bold statement.
Since Taylor and Scooter’s feud went public, the talented songwriter revealed that she plans on re-recording all six of her albums in 2020 and her Netflix doc, Miss Americana, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 23. It’s set to be released at select theaters and on Netflix on Jan. 31.
Taylor left Big Machine Records and signed with Republic Records and Universal Music Group in Nov. 2018, seven months before she made the battle of owning her own music public. She released her seventh studio album and first with the new record label, Lover, on Aug, 23, 2019.