Taylor Swift’s former record label boss insists she had "every chance in the world" to own all her assets, including her master tapes.
The ‘ME!’ hitmaker signed a contract with Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine Records when she was first starting out in the music industry but she recently claimed she was devastated that the label has been sold to Scooter Braun and she was never given the choice to buy her back catalogue and only offered the chance to "earn" it back, one album at a time.
However, the executive has now hit back and insisted that wasn’t the case.
He posted: "100% of all Taylor Swift assets were to be transferred to her immediately upon signing the new agreement. 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."
Scott – who shared texts between himself and the ‘Bad Blood’ singer to prove they had stayed on "good terms" when she rejected his deal – also claimed he was baffled by Taylor’s comments about Scooter, insisting she had always known they were friends and the manager had been a great source of support to them.
He continued: "As to her comments about ‘being in tears or close to it’ anytime my new partner Scooter Braun’s name was brought up, I certainly never experienced that. Was I aware of some prior issues between Taylor and Justin Bieber? Yes.
"But there were also times where Taylor knew that I was close to Scooter and that Scooter was a very good source of information for upcoming album releases, tours, etc, and I’d reach out to him for information on our behalf. "
He also claimed the 29-year-old star had rejected requests to participate in charitable events Scooter was helping to organise, such as Ariana Grande’s One Love Manchester in the wake of the terrorist attack at her British concert and the March for Our Lives anti-gun violence demonstration.
He wrote: "Scooter was never anything but positive about Taylor. He called me directly about Manchester to see if Taylor would participate (she declined).
"He called me directly to see if Taylor wanted to participate in the Parkland March (she declined). Scooter has always been and will continue to be a supporter and honest custodian for Taylor and her music."
In her original blog post, Taylor claimed she had only learned about the deal with Scooter when it was made public, but her former boss has suggested that likely wasn’t the case as her dad, who is also called Scott, was one of the company’s shareholders, so he had been aware of negotiations for at least five days.
He wrote: "Out of courtesy, I personally texted Taylor at 9:06pm, Saturday, June 29th to inform her prior to the story breaking on the morning of Sunday, June 30th so she could hear it directly from me.
"I guess it might somehow be possible that her dad Scott, 13 Management lawyer Jay Schaudies (who represented Scott Swift on the shareholder calls) or 13 Management executive and Big Machine LLC shareholder Frank Bell (who was on the shareholder calls) didn’t say anything to Taylor over the prior 5 days. I guess it’s possible that she might not have seen my text. But, I truly doubt that she ‘woke up to the news when everyone else did’."
The ‘Blank Space’ singer previously admitted she was "sad and grossed out" by the situation.
She wrote: "Thankfully, I am now signed to a label that believes I should own anything I create. Thankfully, I left my past in Scott’s hands and not my future. And hopefully, young artists or kids with musical dreams will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation. You deserve to own the art you make. I will always be proud of my past work. But for a healthier option, Lover will be out August 23. Sad and grossed out, Taylor (sic)"
Taylor Swift’s former label boss hits back
