Taylor Swift – Lover

[thegreatdivine]

Big Machine responds.

[thegreatdivine]

From the article above.

''Big Machine responded to Swift's claims in the following statement, which it released on Friday morning:''

As Taylor Swift’s partner for over a decade, we were shocked to see her tumblr statements yesterday based on false information. At no point did we say Taylor could not perform on the AMAs or block her Netflix special. In fact, we do not have the right to keep her from performing live anywhere. Since Taylor’s decision to leave Big Machine last fall, we have continued to honor all of her requests to license her catalog to third parties as she promotes her current record in which we do not financially participate. The truth is, Taylor has admitted to contractually owing millions of dollars and multiple assets to our company, which is responsible for 120 hardworking employees who helped build her career. We have worked diligently to have a conversation about these matters with Taylor and her team to productively move forward. We started to see progress over the past two weeks and were optimistic as recently as yesterday that this may get resolved. However, despite our persistent efforts to find a private and mutually satisfactory solution, Taylor made a unilateral decision last night to enlist her fanbase in a calculated manner that greatly affects the safety of our employees and their families. Taylor, the narrative you have created does not exist. All we ask is to have a direct and honest conversation. When that happens, you will see there is nothing but respect, kindness and support waiting for you on the other side. To date, not one of the invitations to speak with us and work through this has been accepted. Rumors fester in the absence of communication. Let’s not have that continue here. We share the collective goal of giving your fans the entertainment they both want and deserve.

[MissAmericana]

Why would Taylor lie about something like this? The answer: She didn't. Why start up drama? She's in a better place now, she doesn't want this. She's still out there, selling like crazy and is literally the 8th biggest artist of all time, according to Billboard. Big Machine is clearly twisting her words to suit their narrative. The fact that they're saying that they didn't say she couldn't sing her old hits at the AMAs or the Netflix special likely means that they weren't specific but took away her general right to sing these songs live or use them in any form of media. At least, that's my theory.

[Kinney]

The original article from Variety: variety.com/2019/biz/news/big-machine-records-denies-taylor-swift-claims-scott-borchetta-scooter-braun-1203406009/

"Parsing Big Machine’s statement, those specific claims are actually not completely denied: They say “At no point did we say Taylor could not perform on the AMAs or block her Netflix special,” but do not address permission to use Big Machine-era songs in those shows; they also say they “have continued to honor all of her requests to license her catalog to third parties,” but do not address the two proposed uses in question. They then move on to bigger issues that address the troubled relations between Swift and the label, which broke into the open at the time the Braun-led purchase of the company for a reported $300 million was announced on June 30."

So Big Machine is basically saying "We never said she couldn't perform!", but leaving out that fact that they can stop her from performing old material on telefilm. Even Variety acknowledges this is complete spin. BMG can f*** off.

[deepston]

But she never said she couldn't perform because of Big Machine. She just claimed she couldn't perform her past songs because of them.
They are just twisting her words...

[MissAmericana]

^Exactly. It's all about words, and how they come across. This is just so slimey and toxic.

[thegreatdivine]

Taylor has put out her statement and now Big Machine has done the same. They've joined her in publicly engaging in a war of words.

Like I said earlier, where does this get her? Does she put out another statement?

You also leave out the parts where they say they've reached out to her numerous times, but have been unsuccessful. She doesn't want to talk things out so how does she think anything will be resolved? According to them, she also acknowledged to still owing mllions of dollars and multiple assets to the label contractually, so how are they the monsters here?

It's a label with a staff of over 100 people who all need to get paid for their work. What exactly does Taylor expect to happen?

[Kinney]

You're entitled to your opinion, but at this point I don't agree with you in any capacity and don't care to change your mind. Cape for Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun to your heart's content.

[thegreatdivine]

Posts like this are funny to me. I wish stans would let common sense prevail. How are they wrong and foul for saying they helped build her career? A 15 year-old singer became a megastar all on her own? Then why did she ever need to sign to a record label in the first place?

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

Nov 15, 2019 8:15:53 GMT -5 born said:

The whole situation makes me upset because Taylor is one of the biggest pop stars of all time and has net worth and allies like no one before. And that’s not enough. Imagine what lesser known artists have to deal with. Or aspiring artists. That’s so messed up.

I was waiting for someone to say it’s about the money. I think Taylor has proven time and time again she isn’t in it for the money anymore - at least not with episodes like this. She’s set for life. Having as many hits as she does, all of which she has had a hand in writing, she can literally do nothing but spend for the rest of her life and still be okay.
While she obviously has a personal stake in this situation when it comes to her freedom, I think her doing this is also calling out how poor some of these deals can be for artists. Regardless of how one might feel about her music or her underhandedness, she does look out for the aspiring artists and I think this will be one of those examples.

[thegreatdivine]

I'm not caping simply because I'm not supporting every action and decision Taylor has made regarding this situation.

I've already stated that I want her to acquire the rights to her masters. I just believe she is going about this the wrong way. I also don't believe things are as black and white as she's making it seem. Sorry if that upsets any Taylor fans in here.

[JamaicaFunk²]

Taylor Swift is crawling now so future female artists can run.

[Joe1240]

People need to give Taylor Swift a break here today, She wants to perform a medley of songs that she wrote at an Award Show. Scooter and Scott should not have control over what she does perform and cannot do. Many major artists have changed labels and have performed their older songs with no problem but when it comes to Taylor,they want to stop her from doing it.BMG is just protecting itself in the end with the statement, just give Taylor back her masters,Scooter and Scott just can't keep going like this stopping her from doing what she wants to do. I'm sure they will give in soon.

[thegreatdivine]

Round and round we go.

[Kinney]

Important points
- BMG sent time stamped communication denying licenses for old recordings for the Netflix documentary and her Alibaba show in China last week
- Yesterday, Borchetta denied (again) licensing for the Netflix documentary and additionally denied licensing for the AMA performance
- An independent auditor confirmed BMG owes her $7.9 million in unpaid royalties

I'm glad her publicist actually came through with receipts instead of BMG's gaslighting nothingness of a statement.

[taylor is terrified]

I just want these two pathetic b****rds to cave and honor the two requests for the AMAs and Netflix. Couldn't they have JUST SAID YES?! This way Taylor wouldn't have felt the very understandable need to call them out and expose the music industry, especially BMG, for what it is. 

Oh, also: I love how some of us are once again making Taylor sound like she's playing the victim card. That is not what this is. This is an artist whose last resort was to call them out publicly and urge us fans to do something. Was the fan urging the smartest thing to do? No. However, she also urged her former fellow BMG artists (of whom there is most notably Ariana) to stand up to their bosses and demand the strict "rules" be removed from the AMAs and the Netflix special.

A Lover medley would be nice, but it simply wouldn't be the same. Scooter and Scott surely aren't so ridiculous that they wouldn't let her lip-sync the oldies? And then she could transition to playing live material--the Lover medley. The AMAs are in 9 days and I hope Taylor gets to do more than just accept the AOTD award. I want her to get to perform damnit!!

I stand with Taylor on this 100000%.

(complete side note: Beautiful Ghosts is a marvelous track. One of my all-time favorites from her.)

[JamaicaFunk²]

She can easily add a third verse to The Man and release the live performance on streaming platforms.

[kanimal]

What bugs me is that this issue has MAJOR ramifications for the relationship between labels and artists. And it's a bit annoying to see people, on both sides, Tweeting without respect for that reality. If you don't know what's going on (aka - if you're saying something like "two MEN stole this poor girl's music right out from under her" or "she signed a contract, she has to honor it"), don't comment.

[born]

Nov 15, 2019 9:28:14 GMT -5 Rose "Payola" Nylund said:

I was waiting for someone to say it’s about the money.

I hope that's not a shot at me cause we're on the same page.

[thegreatdivine]

I wish Taylor all the best. I really do hope her and Big Machine can resolve their issues as soon as possible.

[Kat5Kind]

this should hopefully be a lesson to artists that I learned on the first day of college: never trust your record label.

[NeRD]

Nov 15, 2019 4:48:38 GMT -5 Ryan said:

I've always been and always will be on Team Taylor, 100%, but this seems like a very complicated situation. Honestly, I kinda think that she had screwed it a big time the moment she decided to attack Scooter Braun on her social media, depicting him as an evil business mogul who has tried to sabotage her career behind the curtain. She vaguely claimed that without mentioning any specific case and the only "proof" she had was that one screenshot of him, Kayne and Bieber face-timing. But Beiber himself had clarified it already that the call itself had nothing to do with her and Kanye/Kim's fiasco at that time. And that the caption was entirely his idea and Scooter even told him that's not nice and he shouldn't do that. Besides, Scooter countered her argument saying that he's been nothing but supportive of her. Despite of what Taylor said, he had tried to work with her several times over the years but she was the one who always refused his offers. So I'm still not convinced how he bullied her, to be honest.

If Scooter has never done anything to hurt her in any way, the only thing he did was buying her previous label that owns her old masters and there's nothing wrong with that. It was just a smart business decision. And more importantly, she totally had her chance to get her catalogue back. They had negotiated it for months and Scott even posted his final legal offer to Taylor, which was a bit different from what she was claiming at that point. But it was Taylor's business decision to leave Big Machine. There were holes in her claims and I'm sure she ended up getting a big fat check from Republic when she signed a new deal. That's what she has chosen over her masters.

So I kinda understand how Scooter's being just spiteful now and actually trying to do whatever they can, legally, to "sabotage" her. If she performs her hits, they are going to make big $$. So this means that they would rather not let her do her own games than making extra cash. While that's really low and cowardly thing to do, I kinda understand where he's coming from. It was Scooter's biggest achievement in his career - he scored the masters of Taylor f**king Swift. But instead of getting to enjoy his major success, he's got huge backlash. Even his wife and kids got death threats. People have been accusing him for being an evil misogynist who exploits female artsts. That wasn't right and I think Taylor should have handled it much better. But I guess she knew what she was doing.

And if she can LEGALLY re-record her catalogue in 2020... it's only a couple of years, for God's sakes. I know she says it's not about money and I believe her, but that's what makes it so confusing to me. If it's really just about protecting her legacy, she could have tried to work with them so she could prevent them from ruining her legacy. (i.e. releasing a cheap greatest hits set or unreleased songs in a way that she doesn't approve.) And it's not like Scooter and Scott are exploiting her catalogue now, when they legally can. Obviously, Scooter was willing to work with her and that's why he decided to buy the label. She totally could have had a say in a way that they manage her old masters. That would have been ideal for both parties. (Again, I'm just throwing my two cents assuming Scooter Braun really hasn't done anything remotely close to a career sabotage.)

Of course, her career's always been about her talent but we all know what Scott and Big Machine have done for her over a decade. It's not like they were always seeing eye to eye but that's the nature of the industry. Artists and labels can disagree on things sometimes but overall, I would say Big Machine always has been a great supporter. I'm sure she would still have been the Taylor Swift even without their help but who knows what might have happened? There's no point in dwelling on coulda woulda shoulda. The only important fact is that Taylor AND Scott have built their huge empire together. Scott had definitely contributed some. And she was offered a chance to own her masters, which actually wasn't the worst deal like she was claiming back then. So why can't she just let them make their money for two years when she has decided to give up her masters? Especially when she's still making huge money off her catalogue as a singer / writer. She's been very vocal about her ambitious plan on re-recording her whole catalogue next year and I'm sure it didn't help the situation at all either. Whether it was her intention or not, the media coverage was making her decision look like a huge victory against the evil industry. That's a huge middle finger to her previous label and especially to Scooter, who has just paid millions of dollars for her masters. He's bound to lose money and this whole thing has degraded his reputation so I guess that's why they have decided to go hard and be strict about the usage of her old songs in general, which kinda makes sense. Taylor has decided how to play her game and now it's his turn to play his.

I know I'm not speaking for the majority here but I feel like it was her who has started this fight... and I believe she's the one who can finish it. But I'm afraid the bridge had already burnt and it's not going to end well. It's really not nice of her to encourage her fans to "fight" for her. She knows her power and what her fans are capable of. They are just going to cyber-bully everyone and that would only lead to a huge online mess. And I don't know why she wants to make other artists to be a part of this mess. Let your lawyers do their jobs if there's any legal matter, which I don't think there is. And I really hope she learns that making it public and asking help from her fans are not always the best way to work things out.

I honestly agree with everything said here. Fantastic post. 👏🏿

[keeptheflowers]

At this point, aside from being allowed to perform her old songs, Taylor is probably just aiming to spread awareness about the deeper workings in music labels and contracts. The ace card is in her hands and she knows it (through the re-recording) and Scooter has more to lose here than her. Too bad for Scott and Scooter, Taylor used their red light on Netflix and AMAs so she has a stronger reason to post her feelings about the matter.

This is by no means a saintly move from her, but I see why she thinks it's necessary.

As people have said already, Taylor is crawling now so others could run.

[nickd]

Taylor probably started trying to negotiate buying back her masters several years ago and the negotiations fell through because she didn't feel like she could get a reasonable offer. I'm guessing she's not responding to whatever Big Machine is telling her because it's become clear to her that her best bet is to re-record.

And for anyone complaining about her PR tactics, I've yet to see her do anything as underhanded as Borchetta mentioning her not attending One Love Manchester after Scooter invited her for no reason other than to try to tarnish her reputation. That had nothing to do with the issues that were being discussed and he knew that this was at a time when she refused to accept any communications from Scooter and therefore did not know about the offer. (Even if she did know it would have imo been a more underhanded attempt to undermine her reputation than anything she's said)

[Koochie]

An alarming number of artists who have intimate knowledge of and invaluable experience in the music industry, including working with labels and management, have come out to support her and people who have a MacBook and a 1.9 GPA want to waste their time saying they’re wrong.

You do that.

Scooter Braun is a known asshole who hasn’t quite figured out that Taylor is not the one to f**k with. There’s not much else to this story unless you value “looking at it from all sides” over, well, common sense. 

[taylor is terrified]

This was posted 2 hours ago to the Recording Academy's YouTube channel:




Look whose side the Grammy Awards are on.   #FreeTaylor

[deepston]

Nov 15, 2019 17:06:11 GMT -5 taylor is terrified said:

This was posted 2 hours ago to the Recording Academy's YouTube channel:




Look whose side the Grammy Awards are on.   #FreeTaylor

Lover confirmed for Album of the Year category.

[taylor is terrified]

I also can't help but go back to her 2016 win. The taking accomplishments piece was meant for Kanye but I want her to keep the veil off in 2020 when she wins and go straight for Scooter and Scott in her acceptance speech.

[Deleted]

The fact they wrote that hit piece against Taylor, carefully chose their words to avoid saying "older material" just said she can perform her songs and then used her " narrative" line against Kanye against her shows they are trying to GASLIGHT her .

Taylor has every right to speak out and use her fame to get heard. f**k that BS yall spewing about it being dangerous. If Scooter and co. didnt wanna fight then dont go in the ring. It's a clear case of them thinking they could push her around.

Motherfuckers messed with the wrong one and i have more respect for her fighting back.

[Kinney]

The Guardian, The New York Times and Variety have all confirmed to have seen the letter Big Machine sent to Taylor about stopping her from using her old music, making all of Big Machine's "statements" made up lies.

Taylor and Tree Paine are not ones to be f**ked with.