Pop Star Taylor Swift has accused her ex-director Scooter Braun of using funding from the left-wing billionaire George Soros's family to buy her records rights, The Mix reported on Friday.
The dramatic message came as Swift was delivering a speech after she received Billboard's Woman of the Decade award.
"After I was denied the chance to purchase my music outright, my entire catalog was sold to Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings in a deal that I'm told was funded by the Soros family, 23 Capital and that Carlyle Group", Swift said.
She also took a moment to speak about "toxic male privilege" in the industry.
"...Let me just say that the definition of toxic male privilege in our industry is people saying 'but he's always been nice to me' when I'm raising valid concerns about artists and their right to own their music. And of course he's nice to you—if you're in this room, you have something he needs", the singer said, referring to Braun.
💬 | Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for the Woman of the Decade award #BBWomenInMusic (full) pic.twitter.com/cUzmqoFpwF
— Taylor Swift News (@TSwiftNZ) December 13, 2019
On 15 November, Swift posted a dramatic message to her fans on Twitter, saying that her former label, namely Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta, won't allow the pop star to ''sing her own songs'' that ''neither of these men wrote'' and that neither of them ''did anything to create the relationship she has with her fans".
Don’t know what else to do pic.twitter.com/1uBrXwviTS
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) November 14, 2019
After Swift took to Twitter for support, the Nashville office of Braun was reportedly shut down over threatening calls from her fans.
Big Machine Records denied Swift's emotional accusations and denounced her for reaching out to her fans, which could potentially harm the company and people affiliated with it.
In June, Scooter Braun's media holding company Ithaca Holdings LLC announced the acquisition of Swift's former label Big Machine Records, which gave it the master 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.
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".
