Things to Consider BEFORE You Sell

Taylor Swift Paints Scooter Braun as Manipulative Bully as Big Machine Sells Her Catalog - "Halsey says she's "standing with" Swift, saying "it turns my guts" that female stars are "still susceptible to someone coming along and making you feel powerless out of spite."" Mind you, I have no idea who Scooter Braun is, and only slightly more knowledge of Halsey.

Taylor Swift has described herself as “sad and grossed out” by Scooter Braun’s acquisition of Big Machine Records, which holds the rights to her entire catalog up through 2017’s “Reputation,” calling the deal “my worst case scenario.” Swift said she was shocked to first learn of the transfer of her work through news accounts Sunday morning. Braun declined Variety‘s requests for comment.

You know, when I sell a used car, I don't ask what the new owners intend to do with it.

Swift posted her impassioned reaction in a Tumblr post, which reads:

“For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work. 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 because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future. I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past. Music I wrote on my bedroom floor and videos I dreamed up and paid for from the money I earned playing in bars, then clubs, then arenas, then stadiums.

What a rough life you've had. You should ask for refugee status in Canada.

“This is my worst case scenario. This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says ‘Music has value’, he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it.

“When I left my masters in Scott’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. 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.

Halsey

Presumably, you sold the rights to those works for a reason; probably both to further promote your career (which has done quite spectacularly, I'd like to point out), and also for money, (which again, has done remarkably well, making Taylor the  the among the richest self made women under 40, with a net worth of $350 million). We should all make such rotten deals.

Halsey posted support for Swift on Twitter later Sunday, writing, “Taylor Swift is a huge reason why I always insisted to write my own music. I believed if she did it (in a way that made my teeth ache like cold water and my heart swell and my eyes leak) than I should too. Cause that’s how to make someone feel. To drag it from the pits of your heart. To offer it on a platter and say ‘take some but take kindly.’ She deserves to own the painstaking labor of her heart. And it turns my guts that no matter how much power or success a woman has in this life, you are still susceptible to someone coming along and making you feel powerless out of spite. It speaks volumes to how far we have to come in the music industry. The way writers are treated. How as an entertainer you are respected but as a writer you’re walked all over. Even when you are both in one single body. I am standing with her.”

I, myself, as an author of scientific works have sold the rights to my works numerous times. It was done to advance my career, much as her sale was, and while I'm not worth $350 million, it helped enough that I could retire comfortably before my physical and mental decline dictated it.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Cynthia Kirchner up on time and within budget.