Taylor Swift’s Former Label Owner Scott Borchetta Fires Back After She Accuses Scooter Braun of ''Bullying''

As the saying goes, there are three sides to every story. And in the latest saga between Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun, Big Machine Label founder Scott Borchetta is sharing his.

On Sunday, Swift claimed that before leaving Big Machine for Universal Music Group in November 2018, she was fighting to gain control of her music collection. "For years, I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work," she wrote in a scathing post on her Tumblr page. "Instead I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and 'earn' one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in. I walked away."
The superstar went on to say that she was blindsided by news that Braun—he reps Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato among other A-listers—had acquired Big Machine and, with it, her music. "Some fun facts about today's news: I learned about Scooter Braun's purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world," she continued. "All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I've received at his hands for years."

"Scooter has stripped me of my life's work, that I wasn't given an opportunity to buy," the 29-year-old added. "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." 

However, Borchetta has a different story.

In a new post on Big Machine's website, titled "So It's Time For Some Truth," Borchetta said he texted Swift personally about the deal before it was announced. And, had she not seen the message, he added that her dad Scott Swift was a shareholder, who was alerted of the potential sale as early as June 20. 

"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," he wrote. " 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.'

In response to Swift's claim that she would have to earn her albums back, Borchetta attached a "few very important deal points" which were allegedly part of the company's last offer to the superstar before she left for Universal Music Group.

"Taylor and I then talked through the deal together," he wrote. "As you will read, 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. We are an independent record company.  We do not have tens of thousands of artists and recordings.  My offer to Taylor, for the size of our company, was extraordinary."