Taylor Swift Accuses Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta of Blocking Her From Performing Her Old Music

Taylor Swift has published a lengthy statement on her social media accounts, where she claims that her ex-label boss Scott Borchetta and music manager Scooter Braun—who purchased the master recording rights to Swift’s pre-Lover material in June—are preventing her from performing any of her early material during the upcoming American Music Awards, where she is scheduled to be honored with the Artist of the Decade award, as well as a forthcoming Netflix documentary about her life.

According to Swift, Borchetta and Braun are forbidding the performance of her pre-Lover material based on the contractual stipulation that she would be technically “re-recording” the music before she is legally allowed to. (Swift has previously said that she plans to re-record the songs from her first six albums in 2020, when she is legally permitted to.) The singer-songwriter also claims that Borchetta and Braun are blocking the performance or use of any of her old material, and that Borchetta told her representatives that they will allow her to use her music only if she agrees to stop talking about him or Braun and also agrees not to re-record the material in 2020.

“Please let Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun know how you feel about this,” she writes, addressing her fans. “Scooter also manages several artists who I really believe care about other artists and their work. Please ask them for help with this—I’m hoping that maybe they can talk some sense into the men who are exercising tyrannical control over someone who just wants to play the music she wrote.” Find the full statement below.

Read “Taylor Swift’s Music Ownership Controversy With Scooter Braun: What It Means and Why It Matters.”