“Don’t Know What Else To Do”: Taylor Swift Shares Open Letter About Battle With Scooter Braun
"The message being sent to me is clear. Basically, be a good little girl and shut up. Or you'll be punished."
Taylor Swift has released a blistering statement to her fans regarding her fraught battle over her masters with former label head Scott Borchetta and music manager Scooter Braun.
Swift’s masters — that is, her original recordings — of her first six albums were bought by Braun in July, after Swift left the label Big Machine Records. Swift said she was “devastated” by the move: “All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years,” she said in a statement at the time. Swift then announced she would be re-recording her first six albums next year.
The tense battle is ongoing: today, Swift told fans of her fight to perform songs from those albums at the upcoming American Music Awards, where she will be given the Artist of the Decade Award. According to Swift, Braun and Borchetta are not allowing her to perform her old songs on television, because they “claim that would be re-recording my music before I’m allowed to next year.”
She also reveals that a documentary about her life has been in the works with Netflix over the last few years, and claims that Braun and Borchetta have “declined the use of my older music or performance footage” for the project. Swift writes that her team was told by Borchetta that she could only use her music if she agreed to not re-record her old tracks next year, and if she stopped talking about him and Braun in public.
“The message being sent to me is clear. Basically, be a good little girl and shut up. Or you’ll be punished,” she wrote. “This is wrong. Neither of these men had a hand in the writing of those songs. They did nothing to create the relationship I have with my fans…Please let Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun know how you feel about this.”
“I just want to be able to perform my own music,” she finishes. “That’s it. I’ve tried to work this out privately through my team but have not been able to resolve anything…I love you guys and thought you should know what’s going on.”
At the time of writing, neither Braun or Borchetta have responded. Read Taylor Swift’s full statement below.
