Taylor Swift, 30, is once again taking a stand against music manager Scooter Braun and her former label Big Machine Records! The Grammy winner took to her Instagram story to issue a statement about a live performance album being released by the company, which she was not aware of. “Hey guys – I want to thank my fans for making me aware that my former record label is putting out an ‘album’ of live performances of mine tonight,” she opened her April 23 post, written in white text on a red background.
“This recording is from a 2008 radio show performance I did when I was 18. Big Machine has listed the date as a 2017 release but they’re actually releasing it tonight at midnight,” she continued. “I’m always honest with you guys about this stuff so I just wanted to tell you that this release is not approved by me,” Taylor went on, calling out Scooter, who founded SB Projects, and his partners who helped purchase Taylor’s masters.
“It looks to me like Scooter Braun and his financial backers, 23 Capital, Alex Soros and the Soros family and The Carlyle Group have seen the latest balance sheets and realized that paying $330 MILLION for my music wasn’t exactly a wise choice and they need money,” she wrote, adding a tongue-in-cheek laughing-crying emoji. “In my opinion…Just another case of shameless greed in the time of Coronavirus. So tasteless, but very transparent,” she concluded her epic clap back.
Taylor has been at odds with her former label head Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun since June 2019, when it was announced that Scott had sold her masters to Scooter and The Carlyle Group. At the time, she described the sale of her music — that she wrote — being sold as her “worst case scenario,” going on to add that she was not given the opportunity to purchase the masters herself. “All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at [Scooter Braun’s] hands for years,” she wrote on Tumblr. “I walked away [from Big Machine] 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,” she posted.
For his part, Scooter remained mum on the issue until Nov. 2019 during a panel event with our sister publication Variety. “I haven’t talked about this in six months, not once,” he began. “I haven’t made a statement about it and that’s hard, because when you have a lot of things being said and a lot of different opinions — yet the principals haven’t had a chance to speak to each other — there’s a lot of confusion…what I’ll say is, people need to communicate and when people are able to communicate I think they work things out,” the music manager also said.
HollywoodLife has reached out to Big Machine Label for a statement, but has not received a response at time of publishing.