Taylor Swift blew up Twitter on Thursday, when she turned to social media to ask for help in her fight against her previous label, namely her ex-manager Scooter Braun and ex-boss Scott Borchetta, who ''won't allow the pop star to sing her own songs'' that ''neither of these men wrote'' and neither of them ''did anything to create the relationship she has with her fans".
According to Swift, Braun and Borchetta will not let her perform songs from earlier albums for the upcoming American Music Awards as it would be ''re-recording her music'' before she's allowed to next year.
Don’t know what else to do pic.twitter.com/1uBrXwviTS
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) November 14, 2019
It did not take much time for netizens to rush to help, so the hashtag #IStandWithTaylor is now topping Twitter.
I think, Mark, the thing is that these guys won't let her perform any of the music she has already created, for a whole year!, because they're angry over her move to another company. These performances are standard fare for any artist. Refusing her permission to do it _is_ wrong.
— Jonathan Menon (@JonathanMenon) November 15, 2019
Well to her credit though, she made the music, it's her voice, her lyrics. You didn't physically construct your car.
— alex casilio (@alexcasilio) November 15, 2019
However, there are those who believe that Swift does not really own her hits because she sold them to the company and they have full rights to them for a defined period of time.
But she sold all of her music to Scooter for $300 million.
— The Naked Jedi Show™️ (@TheNakedJedi) November 15, 2019
When you buy a car from someone, do they still have a right to drive it? Even if they built it from scratch?
It's intellectual property. They bought it for a period of time. If she doesn't like it, she should not have done it (for money - only reason btw). It was a bad decision on her part. Just don't do it again and she'll be fine.
— Chad Alexander (@localbarmedia) November 15, 2019
SHE SAID pic.twitter.com/q0G528y3fP
— 𝓛𝑜𝓋𝑒, 𝒜𝓃𝓊 (@redligion) November 14, 2019
Additionally, some users asked Swift not to involve other artists in her confrontation with Braun and Borchetta.
please dont drag ariana into this. keep this between you scooter and scott.
— everything i wanted || fan account (@motivatefenty) November 14, 2019
she could’ve went without saying that about scooter’s other artists. that just inserts people who have absolutely nothing to do with the situation
— fabian (@buwygfabe) November 15, 2019
In June, Scooter Braun's media holding company Ithaca Holdings LLC announced the acquisition of Swift's former label Big Machine Label Group (BMLG), which gave it the recording rights to the singer's first six albums, Billboard reported. This means that the company owns Swift's earlier music material and has a legal basis to prevent her from performing it until 2020.
The pop star insists that her chart-topping hits ''have been sold without her knowing''. In July, Borchetta said in a post on the website Big Machine that he did text her and also contacted her father, who is a Big Machine shareholder. He also added that Swift had "every chance in the world to own her masters".
Swift signed to the BMLG after its founder Borchetta saw her performing on stage at the age of 15. As her contract with the company expired in November 2018, she decided to leave the label and sign instead with Universal Music Group.
