Scooter Braun is "not going to participate" in his ongoing feud with Taylor Swift.
The ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ hitmaker has been at loggerheads with the talent manager since he bought her former record label Big Machine from Scott Borchetta, and with it acquired the rights to her back catalogue of master recordings.
Taylor, 29, posted online to express her anger at the deal at the time, and recently took to social media again when she alleged that Big Machine had tried to stop her from performing any of her old material at the upcoming American Music Awards (AMAs), as well as banning her from using her tracks in a planned Netflix documentary.
And now, Scooter has broken his silence on the feud, to insist that he won’t be getting involved on social media because he finds it "toxic" and doesn’t like using the platform to "air out" drama.
He said: "I haven’t talked about this in six months. Not once. I haven’t made a statement about it.
"I just think we live in a time of toxic division, and of people thinking that social media is the appropriate place to air out on each other and not have conversations. And I don’t like politicians doing it. I don’t like anybody doing it.
"If that means that I’ve got to be the bad guy longer, I’ll be the bad guy longer, but I’m not going to participate."
The 38-year-old music mogul would rather sit down with Taylor and have a "closed door" discussion with her, as he said much of the controversy stems from "miscommunications".
But Scooter did admit the drama has been taking a toll on him personally, especially after some fans of the ‘Bad Blood’ singer began sending himself and Scott Borchetta "death threats".
Speaking at the 2019 Entertainment Industry Conference, he explained: "It’s hard, because I can handle it pretty easily, but when it gets to a place where there’s death threats and there’s offices being called and people being threatened … it’s gotten out of hand. Right now we’re in a scary time where people say things and then people might not be in the right mindset and do really horrible things. And we’re inciting all of this by continuing these arguments in public. We just need to go behind closed doors and see if we can have a conversation. And if we’re not having conversations, then I don’t think we’re going to find resolution."
Meanwhile, it was announced on Monday (18.11.19) that Taylor had come to an agreement with Big Machine Label Group – which is run by Scott and was acquired by Scooter’s company in July – and will be able to perform her old songs at the AMAs later this month.
The company said in a statement: "The Big Machine Label Group and Dick Clark Productions announce that they have come to terms on a licensing agreement that approves their artists’ performances to stream post show and for re-broadcast on mutually approved platforms. This includes the upcoming American Music Awards performances. It should be noted that recording artists do not need label approval for live performances on television or any other live media. Record label approval is only needed for contracted artists’ audio and visual recordings and in determining how those works are distributed."
Scooter Braun won’t participate in Taylor Swift feud
