Taylor Swift is reeling after her music was sold to someone who "bullied" her for years. Photo / Getty Images
Taylor Swift is reeling after her music was sold to someone who "bullied" her for years. Photo / Getty Images
Taylor Swift has taken to social media site Tumblr to express her grief and disappointment after learning her entire back catalogue had been sold to a company owned by Scooter Braun.
She called it her "worst case scenario" and detailed the "manipulative bullying" she claims to have suffered at Braun'shands for "years".
On Sunday, Braun's company Ithaca Holdings acquired Swift's former label Big Machine Label Group, which owns the master recordings from her 2006 debut right through to 2017's Reputation.
Swift wrote on Tumblr that she was upset not only because the deal prevents her from owning her music herself, but also because it was Braun who had it.
She wrote about her decision to "leave behind my past", saying she walked away from the label 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," she says.
She continued, saying when she learned about Braun's acquisition, all she 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, organised 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 described the situation as her "worst case scenario", saying; "This is what happens when you sign a deal at 15 to someone for whom the term 'loyalty' is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says 'Music has value', he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it."
She went on to slam Borchetta for making the deal saying, "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.
"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."
Swift finished the post by adding: "I will always be proud of my past work. But for a healthier option, [her new album] Lover will be out August 23."
