Taylor Swift and Scott Borchetta in July, 2018; Kevin Mazur/TAS18/Getty Images for TASFollowing Taylor Swift‘s Tumblr post in which she expresses her dismay over the fact that Scott Borchetta — the head of her former record label, Big Machine — has just sold that label and her back catalog to Scooter Braun, a man Taylor apparently hates, Borchetta has now responded.
In a lengthy post on the label’s website, Borchetta addresses Taylor’s claims point by point, and provides apparent copies of texts and contracts to back up his side of the story.
For example, Birchetta provides a text showing that he gave Taylor a heads-up about the label sale on Saturday night — contradicting her claim that she “learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my master [recordings] as it was announced to the world.”
He also points out that Taylor’s father, her lawyer, and one of her managers were all on the shareholder call when the sale was announced five days earlier, adding that he doubts none of them would have mentioned it to her.
Borchetta also provides a screenshot of what he says is the last contractual offer he made to Taylor for her to stay with Big Machine before she decided to leave the label and sign with Universal Music Group, which she did in November of last year. As Borchetta notes, the contract shows that “100% of all Taylor Swift assets were to be transferred to her immediately upon signing the new agreement.” That included her back catalog.
In her Tumblr post, Taylor says she “pleaded” for a chance to buy her masters, but claims that Big Machine would have forced her to “earn” the rights back to each album one by one for every new album she recorded for Big Machine, had she stayed.
Borchetta also notes that when Taylor told him she was going to another record company, he didn’t stand in her way and wished her well. He also provided a text he says Taylor sent him informing him that she was leaving, in which she wrote, “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.”
Borchetta adds, “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.”
As for Taylor’s claim in her Tumblr post about her “being in tears or close to it” any time Braun’s name was brought up in conversations with Borchetta: He said he was aware of “prior issues” between her and Scooter’s star client, Justin Bieber, but he noted that Taylor was well aware that he and Braun were close. He also claims Braun “was never anything but positive about Taylor,” and feels he will be an “honest custodian” for her music.
Finally, Borchetta makes it a point to note that Braun invited Taylor to perform at his client Ariana Grande‘s massive One Love Manchester charity concert in June, 2017 following the Manchester, England terrorist bombing, and says she declined. He also claims Taylor turned down Braun’s invitation to participate in the “Parkland March” — likely referring to the “March for Our Lives” gun control demonstration that took place in March of 2018.
Borchetta ends his post with: “And, that’s the truth…”
As of late Sunday night, there was no public response from Taylor.
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