Taylor Swift pens powerful Tumblr post following news Scooter Braun now owns her back catalog

Don't blame her.
 By 
Erin Strecker
 on 
Taylor Swift pens powerful Tumblr post following news Scooter Braun now owns her back catalog
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock (10222623kz) Taylor Swift Billboard Music Awards, Arrivals, MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, USA - 01 May 2019 Credit: Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock

Taylor Swift may be one of the most successful recording artists of all time, but even that doesn't protect her from the terrible whims of the music industry.

The singer posted a note on her Tumblr Sunday afternoon shortly after news broke that Scooter Braun (famous for managing Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, among others) would be purchasing her back catalog.

Big Machine Label Group, Swift’s former label and the owner of her master recordings from her 2006 self-titled debut through 2017’s reputation, was sold to Braun as part of a $300 million deal, Billboard reports.

Noting that she found out the news the same time everyone else did, Swift wrote on Tumblr, “All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years,” calling out when Braun's client, Kanye West, "organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked," among other events.

“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.”

Swift goes on to note:

“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.”

With her giant platform, it’ll be interesting to see if and how things change over the next several days. (Recall when Swift wrote an open letter to Apple and got the company to change its policy regarding paying artists.)

Swift explains that she hopes young people "will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation. You deserve to own the art you make."

There's no way Braun wants this kind of disappointment and sadness accompanying his big purchase.

Too bad.

Topics Music

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Erin Strecker

I'm the Entertainment Editor at Mashable. Reach me at [email protected]

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