Taylor Swift wrote that she was “sad and grossed out” by the news on June 30 that Justin Bieber‘s manager Scooter Braun had purchased Scott Borchetta‘s Big Machine Records, which owns the masters to all six of her albums. The Biebs initially seemed to troll her, posting a, Instagram pic of him FaceTiming with her arch enemies Kanye West and Scooter, writing “Taylor Swift what up? While he’s sorry for that, he’s upset with the “Me” singer for writing a lengthy Tumblr post that was highly critical of the 38-year-old music manager.
In a new IG post that followed, he posted a throwback pic of the two together when they were teens and wrote “Hey Taylor. First of all i would like to apologize for posting that hurtful instagram post, at the time i thought it was funny but looking back it was distasteful and insensitive.. I have to be honest though it was my caption and post that I screenshoted (sic) of scooter and Kanye that said ‘taylor swift what up.’ He didn’t have anything to do with it and it wasn’t even a part of the conversation in all actuality he was the person who told me not to joke like that.” Justin ended up deleting that post.
Then the 25-year-old singer went on to praise his manager and claim that he’s on Taylor’s side. “Scooter has had your back since the days you graciously let me open up for you! 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,” he explained.
“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. Anyway, One thing i know is both scooter and i love you. I feel like the only way to resolve conflict is through communication. So banter back and forth online i don’t believe solves anything,” he continued.
“I’m sure Scooter and i would love to talk to you and resolve any conflict, pain or any feelings that need to be addressed. Neither scooter or i have anything negative to say about you we truly want the best for you. I usually don’t rebuttal things like this but when you try and deface someone i loves character thats crossing a line,” he concluded.
In Taylor’s Tumblr post she wrote that “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.” She called it her “worst case scenario” and “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.”
Scotter’s wife Yael also came to his defense, claiming that Taylor was aware of the sale and that she had passed on purchasing her music catalog. She also called her out for her Tumblr post which incited fans against her husband.
Scooter’s new client Demi Lovato also came to his defense, calling him a “good man” in an Instagram stories post:
no one:
lit no one:
demi lovato: pic.twitter.com/QpJ1S8Fvnd
— yeff; (@selenaforzayn) July 1, 2019
As a result of Taylor’s pain of having someone she can’t stand owning the rights to her entire music catalogue, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, Camila Cabello, Adele, and Gwen Stefani all reportedly unfollowed Scooter on social media. Halsey wrote a lengthy tweet describing how Taylor inspired her to write all of her own music and ended with “I am standing with her” with a broken heart emoji. Katy Perry even signed a Change.org petition calling out Scooter for his “dirty tricks’ and asked Taylor to re-record her projects under Big Machine Records and release them as her own under Republic Records where she is both master and publisher, writing ““I stand with Taylor. Stay strong my friend.”