Scooter Braun has broken his silence on Taylor Swift’s comments about him and his company, the Big Machine Label Group.
The 29-year-old singer-songwriter has loudly spoken out against her old master recordings falling into the hands of the music manager Braun, who bought them by acquiring Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine Label Group in June.
Swift has used the sale and its aftermath to publicly advocate for the rights of artists and to further a feud with the two men.
During a Q&A at The Hollywood Chamber’s 2019 Entertainment Industry Conference, Braun said he hasn’t “talked about this in six months, not once… and that’s hard.”
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“When there’s a lot of things being said and a lot of different opinions, yet the principals haven’t had a chance to speak to each other, there’s a lot of confusion,” said Braun, who never mentioned the Bad Blood singer by name.
“I’m not going to go into details here, because it’s just not my style.”
He added that he believes “we live in a time of toxic division, and of people thinking that social media is the appropriate place to air out on each other and not have conversations.”
“And I don’t like politicians doing it. I don’t like anybody doing it, and if that means that I’ve got to be the bad guy longer, I’ll be the bad guy longer, but I’m not going to participate,” the music mogul said.
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Braun suggested the solution would be that “people need to communicate, and when people are able to communicate, I think they work things out.”
“And I think a lot of times things are miscommunications, because I believe that people are fundamentally good,” he said.
“I think there are a lot of real problems in the world, and I think that these problems that are being discussed can be discussed behind closed doors and figured out pretty easily, and it’s something I’ve wanted to do for six months. ”
Braun went on to say that “when it gets to a place where there’s death threats and there’s offices being called and people being threatened… it’s gotten out of hand.”
“And I think people need to come together and have a conversation, because that’s not what we got in this industry for.”
“The only good thing for me is that when you get knocked down on some stuff, you get to find out who your real friends are real quick,” Braun said. “And watching some people in the industry who, you know, might smile in your face and then suddenly you’ve got a little dent in the armour and they come try to kick it in even more.
“It doesn’t bother me, but it just lets me know where I stand.”
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On Friday, Braun took to social media to reveal that his family has received death threats from Swift’s loyal fan base.
“Since your public statement last week there have been numerous death threats directed at my family,” Braun wrote. “This morning I spoke out publicly for the first time saying I wouldn’t participate in a social media war.”
“However I came home tonight to find my wife had received a phone call threatening the safety of our children as well as other threats seen above,” he added.
“I won’t go in to the details of this past week. I have been at a loss.”
Braun continued: “I assume this was not your intention but it is important that you understand that your words carry a tremendous amount of weight and that your message can be interpreted by some in different ways. While disappointed that you have remained silent after being notified by your attorney 4 days ago of these ongoing threats, I’m still hopeful we can fix this.”
He said that he was “shocked and disheartened to hear that my presence in the Big Machine deal caused you so much pain as the handful of times we have actually met I have always remembered them to be pleasant and respectful.”
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Last week, Swift said that she may not perform at the American Music Awards (AMAs) and may have to put other projects on hold because Braun and Scott Borchetta own her old recordings and won’t allow her to play her songs.
“Right now my performance at the AMAs, the Netflix documentary and any other recorded events I am planning to play until November 2020 are a question mark,” Swift said on Twitter and Instagram.
Swift said she had planned to play a medley of her hits when she’s named Artist of the Decade at the American Music Awards on Nov. 24, but the men who own the music, Braun and Borchetta, are calling the television performance an illegal re-recording.
“I just want to be able to perform MY OWN music. That’s it,” Swift said.
“I’ve tried to work out this out privately through my team but have not been able to resolve anything.”
The Big Machine Label Group said in a statement that “at no point did we say Taylor could not perform on the AMAs or block her Netflix special. In fact, we do not have the right to keep her from performing live anywhere.”
Swift said in the posts that Borchetta has told her he will allow the projects to go forward if she drops plans to record copycat versions of her older songs next year — which Swift says she plans to do and has the legal right to — and if she stops her public trashing of the two men.
“The message being sent to me is very clear,” Swift said.
“Basically, be a good little girl and shut up. Or you’ll be punished.”
— With files from The Associated Press
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