Taylor Swift has said she is “sad and grossed out” over the news that music manager Scooter Braun will soon own her entire music catalogue.
The pop star, who is set to release her new album Lover on 26 August, posted a reaction on Tumblr after it emerged that Braun’s media holding company Ithaca Holdings LLC had reached a “finalised contract” where it will acquire Big Machine Label Group, Swift’s former label.
The deal is worth a reported $300m, Billboard reports, and means Braun’s company will gain the six albums Swift has released to date – from her self-titled 2006 debut to her 2017 album Reputation – as well has music by artists including Sheryl Crow and Lady Antebellum.
Swift made it clear she was unhappy with the news and accused Braun of bullying her for years.
1/6 Taylor Swift x You Need to Calm Down
For her opening look, Swift rises from a very millennial-looking bedroom in a caravan, complete with bubblegum pink wallpaper and a matching sheer curtain. The singer wears a silky nude dressing gown complete with red lace trim, matching lingerie and scarlet lipstick. She also wears a pink silk eye mask with the words “calm down” embroidered in gold.
2/6 Taylor Swift x You Need to Calm Down
In a very obvious reference to the cult early noughties film, Legally Blonde, Swift wears a furry fuchsia coat over a pastel pink bandeau bikini. While holding what appears to be a Cosmopolitan cocktail, the singer wears diamante heart-shaped earrings with cat-eye sunglasses.
3/6 Taylor Swift x You Need to Calm Down
This look appears to be a direct reference to Katy Perry, who is known for sporting her fair share of colourful wigs on stage. Swift’s is a blended trio of cobalt blue, purple and rosy pink. The full look consists of luminously shiny gold shorts, a deep purple satin western shirt, which she has tied up around her waist, and cowboy boots.
4/6 Taylor Swift x You Need to Calm Down
In her penultimate look, Swift is filmed reclining on a sunlounger that matches the yolk yellow of her retro high-waisted bikini. Also matching are her tinted heart-shaped shades.
5/6 Taylor Swift x You Need to Calm Down
For her grande finale, Swift potters around wearing a fries costume while those in the background are immersed in a cake fight behind her. She looks lost until she stumbles across her partner in crime, Katy Perry, who is dressed as a hamburger.
6/6 Taylor Swift x You Need to Calm Down
The two singers/American culinary staples come together in a final friendly embrace to show that all is peaceful and harmonious in the worlds of Swift and Perry. Finally.
1/6 Taylor Swift x You Need to Calm Down
For her opening look, Swift rises from a very millennial-looking bedroom in a caravan, complete with bubblegum pink wallpaper and a matching sheer curtain. The singer wears a silky nude dressing gown complete with red lace trim, matching lingerie and scarlet lipstick. She also wears a pink silk eye mask with the words “calm down” embroidered in gold.
2/6 Taylor Swift x You Need to Calm Down
In a very obvious reference to the cult early noughties film, Legally Blonde, Swift wears a furry fuchsia coat over a pastel pink bandeau bikini. While holding what appears to be a Cosmopolitan cocktail, the singer wears diamante heart-shaped earrings with cat-eye sunglasses.
3/6 Taylor Swift x You Need to Calm Down
This look appears to be a direct reference to Katy Perry, who is known for sporting her fair share of colourful wigs on stage. Swift’s is a blended trio of cobalt blue, purple and rosy pink. The full look consists of luminously shiny gold shorts, a deep purple satin western shirt, which she has tied up around her waist, and cowboy boots.
4/6 Taylor Swift x You Need to Calm Down
In her penultimate look, Swift is filmed reclining on a sunlounger that matches the yolk yellow of her retro high-waisted bikini. Also matching are her tinted heart-shaped shades.
5/6 Taylor Swift x You Need to Calm Down
For her grande finale, Swift potters around wearing a fries costume while those in the background are immersed in a cake fight behind her. She looks lost until she stumbles across her partner in crime, Katy Perry, who is dressed as a hamburger.
6/6 Taylor Swift x You Need to Calm Down
The two singers/American culinary staples come together in a final friendly embrace to show that all is peaceful and harmonious in the worlds of Swift and Perry. Finally.
“For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work,” Swift wrote on her Tumblr page on Sunday 30 June.
“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. I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, [Big Machine founder] 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.”
“Some fun facts about today’s news: I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world,” she continued. “All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years.
“Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it. Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked. Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”
Swift also criticised Big Machine founder Scott Borchetta for making the deal with Braun. “When I left my masters in Scott’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter,” Swift wrote.
“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.”
Read the full Tumblr post below:
Soon after her post, “IStandWithTaylor” began trending on Twitter, with fans sharing a petition for Swift’s albums to be handed over to her.
Braun and Borchetta have not responded publicly to Swift’s remarks. However, Braun posted on Instagram about the deal, writing: “Genuinely grateful for my new partner @scott.borchettaand the entire @bigmachinelabelgroup team,” Braun wrote. “We together at Ithaca are going to do amazing things and our hope is to give every artist the tools they need to succeed in all arenas. Thank you again for the trust Scott. Let’s get it!”
