Could Taylor Swift Have Bought Back Her Catalog?
The battle of words between Taylor Swift and former label head Scott Borchetta has already reached epic proportions in terms of drawing lines in the sand, but now Swift's attorney, Don Passman, has entered into the fray, asserting that Borchetta's claims he offered Swift a fair deal out of Big Machine Records when she chose to leave the label group are not true.
In a statement on Tuesday (July 2), Passman said, "Scott Borchetta never gave Taylor Swift an opportunity to purchase her masters, or the label, outright with a check in the way he is now apparently doing for others."
To nutshell: Swift is upset due to the fact that after leaving her longtime label, Big Machine, the label head (Borchetta) did not afford a deal that allowed her to purchase her back catalog outright. Swift chose to leave and allow her past work to be in Borchetta's hands. Borchetta entered into a conglomerate deal with an industry mogul, Scooter Braun, whom Swift has bad blood with and asserted several offensive events between them specifically in her social media.
Swift aired her thoughts publicly regarding the sale, saying that the purchase her "worst case scenario." She claims that her past work is now in the hands of someone who subjected her to "incessant, manipulative bullying," which she also claims that Borchetta was well aware of.
Borchetta replied with his own take on the matter, stating "We were working together on a new type of deal for our new streaming world that was not necessarily tied to 'albums' but more of a length of time... 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."
The argument has touched every corner of the social media world, with everyone from Justin Bieber to Halsey to Demi Lovato calling out their respective sides in the matter and calling out a sharp divide between "team Taylor" and "team Scooter." Although Borchetta posted a lengthy explanatory post defending his decision, Braun himself has not yet made a public statement.
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