Sheryl Crow doesn’t understand the "big stink" over Taylor Swift’s master recordings.
‘Look What You Made Me Do’ hitmaker Taylor previously claimed she was left feeling "grossed out" when she discovered Scooter Braun – whom she has previously accused of "bullying" her – had purchased her former label Big Machine records from Scott Borchetta, meaning he acquired the rights to her early work but 57-year-old Sheryl doesn’t think there was anything particularly unusual about the deal because it happens in the music business so often.
Speaking on ‘Watch What Happens Live’, she said: "I’m going to be honest with you…I stay out of that world. I will say one thing about masters, like I signed with a record label 30 years ago…these things, that’s just the way the business goes.
"That’s totally not unusual for your masters to change hands like 9,000 times. I don’t know what the big stink was. I’m kind of out of the loop, so I don’t really know."
In the Big Machine deal, Scooter acquired Taylor’s entire back catalogue of master recordings but she claimed she was not informed of the deal before the news went public, and said she was never given the chance to buy her own music from Scott.
In a Tumblr post after news of the sale broke, Taylor wrote: "Some fun facts about today’s news: I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years.
Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it. Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked. Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.
This is my worst case scenario. This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says ‘Music has value’, he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it.
When I left my masters in Scott’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter. Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words ‘Scooter Braun’ escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to. He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever.
"Sad and grossed out, Taylor."
The ‘ME!’ singer is now planning to re-record all her early albums next year.
Sheryl Crow doesn’t understand fuss over Taylor Swift master tapes row
