Taylor Swift responds to Big Machine’s defense: “The truth is…”
Getty Images For dcp via ABC/Emma McIntyre/AMA2018In a statement, Taylor Swift and her team have responded to her former record label Big Machine’s defense this morning against the accusations the singer has made regarding its refusal to allow her to perform her old hits on the American Music Awards.
The statement begins “The truth is…” and then quotes a communication from the label, sent to Team Taylor on October 28, which reads: “Please be advised that [Big Machine] will not agree to issue licenses for existing recordings or waivers of its re-recording restrictions in connection with these two projects: The Netflix documentary and The Alibaba ‘Double Eleven’ event.”
This message backs up Taylor’s claim that her old label, which owns the rights to her master recordings, has refused to allow her to use any of her old songs in her Netflix documentary. As for the “Alibaba” thing, that’s a reference to the televised event in China at which Taylor performed earlier this week.
As Taylor previously stated, and this message confirms, Big Machine considered both of these events “re-recordings,” and under her contract, she’s not allowed to re-record her old songs until next year.
Team Taylor’s statement continues, “To avoid an argument over rights, Taylor performed three songs off her new album Lover at the Double Eleven event as it was clear that [Big Machine] felt any televised performance of catalog songs violated her agreement.”
“In addition, yesterday Scott Borchetta, CEO and founder of Big Machine Label Group, flatly denied the request for both American Music Awards and Netflix,” it goes on to say, before adding, “Please notice in Big Machine’s statement, they never actually deny either claim Taylor said last night in her post.”
It concludes by saying, “Lastly, Big Machine is trying to deflect and make this about money by saying she owes them, but an independent, professional auditor has determined that Big Machine owes Taylor $7.9 million dollars of unpaid royalties over several years.”
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