Let’s talk about this Taylor Swift drama. Now I am a huge Swiftie, so I will be biased in my conclusion that we should support Taylor but I’m here to explain what exactly has been going on.
So Taylor’s first 6 albums Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and reputation were all made under the record label, Big Machine Records. Taylor entered into a contract with them when she was 14 when Scott Borchetta was just starting the label, Taylor was his first artist. Fast forward to June 30, 2019 when Taylor posted on Tumblr about her not owning her masters and how her masters was sold behind her back to Scooter Braun.
Here’s the explanation on her masters and people saying that she had the right to buy it and she refused. Yes, she did have the option to buy her masters if she continued working with Big Machine Records, where she would be able to purchase each past album with a new album. So she would need to write 6 more albums with this label in order to own her previous ones. So she decided to place her future in her own hands rather than be bogged down by her past. She was aware that Scott Borchetta was going to sell her masters. Selling her masters was not the problem for Taylor, it was who he sold it to. Taylor says that Scott was well aware of the pain that Scooter had caused Taylor, particularly during the Kanye drama. So yes, technically she was offered to buy her masters but not directly, she would have to produce six more albums in order to own her previous ones, thus trapping her in an endless cycle where she would never be able to fully own all of her own work.
So, the album Lover comes out, it does amazing, Taylor shares that by her contract with Big Machine she will be able to begin re-recording her work starting November 2020, and she fully plans on doing that.
Then on November 14, Taylor posts on her instagram story and her other social medias that she is being denied the right to perform her past songs at her AMA’s performance and her old work will not be allowed in the Netflix documentary she’s been working on. Big Machine rebuttals saying that of course she can perform her songs and we aren’t stopping her documentary I don’t know what she’s talking about. But they address something that Taylor did not claim. She can perform her old songs, that’s not the problem, the problem is with the issue of it being recorded. If she performs her old songs during her AMAs performance where she was planning on doing a medley of her past songs because she will be awarded with the Artist of the Decade award, if those songs are recorded and put on youtube this is technically a breach of contract. If the old songs are recorded, this is considered her re-recording which she is not allowed to do until November 2020. This is the issue with using any performances of her past songs in her upcoming Netflix documentary, they are considered re-recordings. She says in her post that she will only be allowed to use her own work if she agrees to not re-record in November 2020 and if she agrees to stop talking about Scooter Braun. First of all, she is legally allowed to re-record as her contract states so they can’t take that away from her, as well as she has the right to her freedom of speech and he should’ve thought about the consequences of selling her masters to Scooter. So yes Big Machine was technically right, she can perform her old songs and the documentary is not being stopped, but nothing can be recorded.
Taylor calls her fans and people in the industry to action. She in no way asks them to threaten Big Machine, she simply asks for people to tell them how they feel. Big Machine calls this “enlisting her fans in a calculated manner” but of course as Taylor herself says a man is called “strategic” while a woman can only be “calculated” so it makes sense.
There has been no resolution other than people continuing to blame Taylor for “playing the victim” or being dramatic yet again. Here’s the thing, Taylor has called herself dramatic, artists are meant to be dramatic, it is kind of part of their job, and yet it is always seen as a negative for Taylor. I’m sick and tired of it. You don’t have to like Taylor’s music or even her to see that Big Machine is denying her the right to use her past work in the ways she wants to. Taylor wrote every single one of those songs and now they are saying that clips of her performing those words that she herself aren’t allowed in a documentary about her 13 years in this industry. Scott Borchetta would not exist without Taylor Swift and he is now taking his power over her in a contract that she signed when she was 14. The issue remains that these men are denying Taylor the right to her hard work.
All this being said, I don’t know how it can be resolved. I hope that Big Machine offers her the chance to genuinely buy her masters without any strings attached.
Anyway, go stream Lover.