‘Look What You Made Me Do’ may be exactly what Scott Borchetta, the founder of Big Machine Label Group, was thinking when he dug up receipts to refute Taylor Swift‘s claim that she was blindsided by Scooter Braun‘s acquisition of her masters (valued at a whopping $300 million).
After the Grammy winner took to Tumblr to slam Braun for purchasing her catalog – an acquisition her reps claim she didn’t find out about until it went to press – Braun’s wife and fellow celebs weighed in on the PR disaster (click here to read).
Borchetta, among the attacked by Swift’s devoted fans, is trying to clear his good name and has proof he says will show the singer did know about the deal ahead of time. It should be noted, the 29-year-old – in her lengthy Tumblr post (that can be read by clicking here) – did reveal she was given the opportunity to purchase her masters but only “one album at a time.” Per his newly unveiled documents, Scott says this isn’t true.
More inside:
“It’s time to set some things straight. Taylor’s dad, Scott Swift, was a shareholder in Big Machine Records, LLC. We first alerted all of the shareholders on Thursday, June 20th for an official shareholder’s call scheduled for Tuesday, June 25. On the 6/25 call the shareholders were made aware of the pending deal with Ithaca Holdings and had 3 days to go over all of the details of the proposed transaction.
“Out of courtesy, I personally texted Taylor at 9:06 p.m., Saturday, June 29 to inform her prior to the story breaking on the morning of Sunday, June 30 so she could hear it directly from me. I truly doubt that she ‘woke up to the news when everyone else did. Taylor and I talked through the deal together.
“Taylor had every chance in the world to own not just her master recordings, but every video, photograph, everything associated to her career. She chose to leave.
“This is the text Taylor sent to me on Monday, November 19th at 8:57 a.m.:
Scott,
I hope this finds you well. Since communication ran dry on our negotiations, I’ve done what I told you I would do and gone out exploring other options. Owning my masters was very important to me, but I’ve since realized that there are things that mean even more to me in the bigger picture. I had a choice whether to bet on my past or to bet on the future and I think knowing me, you can guess which one I chose. I also saw a rare opportunity to effect positive change for a lot of other artists with the leverage I have right now…
Taylor
Here is the text I sent on the evening of June 29 at 9:05pm:
“Dear Taylor,
Tomorrow morning (Sunday, June 30th) at 10 a.m. central, the Wall Street Journal will announce that I am entering into a merger/acquisition with Scooter Braun and Ithaca Holdings. This move will give us more pop culture super-power than ever before and I’m so excited about the future.
I want you to know that I will continue to be the proud custodian of your previous works and will continue to keep you and your team abreast of all future plans for releases of you work.”
“Scott”
*****
Click here to read the lengthy blog post in its entirety and see the screen shots of the deal. Swift’s reps maintain that she not only heard about the deal this morning when it was announced, but that her father was not on the call described by Borchetta above. Click here to read more on that.
Your thoughts?
Tyler Perry said it best at the BET Awards “Own your own stuff.”
I agree. I find this article strange and the fact this guy is saying he notified her 5 days ago is meaningless. People need at least 30 days to correspond with a decision. Perhaps Taylor did not want the old master but would have bought them if she had known who the prospective buyer was. She is very rich so at the end of the day this whole deal is meaningless to her continuous new money bags. I wish they would state how much the purchase was made for.
She’s 29?
Her solar AND saturn returns will be hitting her SO HARD for the next 2.5 years. Mainly to have her recalculate everything she’s known to be true until now. Must say it started off badly for her with a 300M$ loss already.
Her haters are gonna munch popcorn watching her fall. Unless she works twice as hard to earn her spot back.
This is not a 300 million loss. I’m not that familiar with her music and that is NOT a good thing. It means her music is microwave popcorn aka not really worth much past the years it was released. Now if she has some huge hits in there like a ‘We Belong Together’ or an ‘Unbreak My Heart’ then yeah it’s a loss somehwhat but I believe this girl was smart enough to at least have her name listed as co-writer so she can get a portion of the streaming payouts.
You make sense. She did get writing and publishing credits, indeed.
Pop culture super power? LMAO, who the HELL does he think he is? If Taylor’s fans and the GP stop buying and streaming her old music, then it’s worthless! This is a PR disaster and a steaming funky MESS…and texting somebody the night before a morning announcement is NOT a heads up! Woo chile, the ghetto!
I fail to see how this clears his name since: A) Taylor’s statement claims he offered to give her those masters one album at a time only if she re-signed. She’d get one for every new album she gave him. B) Sending somebody a damn last minute text in the middle of the night before the news breaks the next morning doesn’t count as proper notice. Was she supposed to be glued to her phone all night?!
Word!
Toxic skin bleaching or hair-dye agents must have gotten into his system.
Must have shaved off his integrity along with that Adam’s apple.
You get that 1989, the that Fearless….then maybe that Red……one at a time doesn’t sound bad girl…lol. Lover already sounds weak. Maybe she will executive produce her “Bodyguard” one day. Good luck with that because “Hey kids, spelling is fun”… won’t compare to “If I….should stay, I would only be in……your way”……LAWD…lol
That isn’t witneys original song.
welp…. THIS TOO https://open.spotify.com/album/4J0MJ1huck3pcCAAaBYwSK?si=gU5fj2T1QB2KIDAXkvKGoQ
Wow. So she did know!
She never denied knowing about it. She said she wanted the opportunity to buy it.