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Emma Watson Weighed in on That Taylor Swift-Scooter Braun Controversy


Emma Watson is the latest celebrity to comment on Taylor Swift‘s legal situation with Big Machine’s Scooter Braun.

During an interview with Variety at the New York premiere of Little Women, the actor said the pop star’s current ownership battle over her music very much reminds her of Saoirse Ronan’s character Jo March, who also struggles to own the copyrights to her debut novel.

“It’s about believing in yourself and knowing your worth and owning your worth,” Watson said on the red carpet.

“Right now, the Taylor Swift situation is a great example of, you know, you’re young and you’re talented and someone wants to buy your work, but having ownership at the end of the day is super, super important because you don’t know what someone’s going to decide to do with that,” she explained.

The Harry Potter star also compared the situation to the Monopoly board game.

“I think people undervalue ownership,” she added. “You know when you play Monopoly and you have a decision and you want to own something or get cash fast. The way to win Monopoly, everyone, is to own stuff. I’m just saying.”

You can watch Watson’s full interview with Variety below:

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Watson isn’t the only Little Woman star to weigh in on Swift’s controversy; Ronan also made comparisons between her character and the “Lover” hitmaker while promoting the film last week.

“Taylor Swift just released an album [and it’s the first album she’s ever owned,” she said on This Morning. “We really wanted to use this opportunity to honour this and fight for her work.”

As for Swift, she first spoke out against Braun and Scott Borchetta in June after the talent manager purchased her masters allegedly without her consent.

The 30-year-old singer also took aim at Braun while accepting Billboard‘s Woman of the Decade Award. During her powerful speech, Swift noted that music is too often “bought up like real estate,” adding that it had “happened to me without my approval, consultation or consent.”

“The fact is that private equity enabled [Braun] to think, according to his own social media post, that he could ‘buy me.’ I’m obviously not going willingly,” she said. “Yet the most amazing thing was to discover that it would be the women in our industry who would have my back and show me the most vocal support at one of the most difficult times and I will never, ever forget it. Like, ever.”



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Taylor Swift Called Out Scooter Braun During Her Speech at Billboard's Women in Music Event


But Swift saved some of her harshest words for Braun, who acquired the rights to her masters when he purchased her former record label with backing from a private equity firm. “As your resident loud person, I feel the need to bring it up. That is the unregulated world of private equity coming in and buying up our music as if it is real estate, as if it’s an app or a shoe line. This just happened to me without my approval, consultation or consent,” she said. “After I was denied the chance to purchase my music outright, my entire catalogue was sold to Scoter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings in a deal that I’m told was funded by the Soros Family, 23 Capital and the Carlyle Group. Yet to this day, none of these investors have bothered to contact me or my team directly to perform their due diligence on their investment. On their investment in me, to ask how I might feel about the new owner of my art. The music I wrote. The videos I created. Photos of me, my handwriting, my album designs.”

“Of course, Scooter never contacted me or my team to discuss it prior to the sale or even when it was announced. I’m fairly certain he knew how I would feel about it, though. Let me just say that the definition of the toxic male privilege in our industry is people saying, ‘Well, he’s always been nice to me’ when I’m raising valid concerns about artists and their rights to own their music,” she continued. “Of course he’s nice to you. If you’re in this room you have something he needs.”

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She continued, “The fact is that private equity enabled this man to think, according to his own social media post, that he could ‘buy me.’ I’m obviously not going willingly. Yet the most amazing thing was to discover that it would be the women in our industry who would have my back and show me the most vocal support at one of the most difficult times and I will never, ever forget it. Like ever.”

Well, that’s indeed one powerful way to kick off your 30th year, Tay. We’re impressed.



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Taylor Swift Says She's Re-Recording All Her Old Music in Light of the Scooter Braun Drama


In late June, news broke that Justin Bieber’s manager, Scooter Braun, had acquired Taylor Swift’s back catalog of music as part of his purchase of Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine Label Group. (Big Machine was Swift’s old label.) Pretty much everyone, from Halsey to Todrick Hall to Justin Bieber, had something to say about the situation, and voices on social media (including Kelly Clarkson) even urged her to consider the biggest power move possible: re-recording her entire catalogue.

And it turns out that’s exactly what Swift has decided to do. A short transcript from her recent appearance on CBS Sunday Morning reveals that the pop star is planning to head back to the studio and create brand new masters of all the songs that Braun now owns. Here’s exactly what she said when correspondent Tracy Smith asked her if she was going to re-record everything.

“Might you do that?” Smith asks.

“Oh yeah,” Swift says.

“That’s a plan?” Smith asks.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Swift answers.

As a recap, the whole drama started when Big Machine Records—the Scott Borchetta-owned label that Swift was on for a bulk of her career—was acquired by Braun’s company, Ithaca Holdings. In a Tumblr post, Swift insisted that she didn’t know about the sale until it was announced and that she wasn’t given the chance to buy her music. She also expressed her frustration that the songs she’d worked so hard on were now owned by someone she says had subjected her to “incessant, manipulative bullying.”

“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,” she wrote. “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.”

It’s unclear when Taylor Swift is going to start this project, but it’s going to be a huge undertaking. It comes right as her seventh studio album, Lover, is scheduled to drop on August 23. The full CBS interview will be out on August 25.



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Every Celebrity Connected to the Taylor Swift-Scooter Braun Drama


Hailey Baldwin. Justin Bieber’s wife. Commented “gentleman” on his post defending Braun, which irked Swift’s friend, Cara Delevingne. More on that later.

Yael Cohen Braun. Scooter’s wife. Posted a lengthy message to her Instagram defending her husband’s name and accusing Swift of collecting and dropping friends like “wilted flowers.” Kendall Jenner, Courteney Cox, Tori Kelly, Kacey Musgraves, and Olivia Munn all reportedly “liked” Yael’s message at one point. (Some have since retracted.)

Allison Jamie Kaye. A partner at Ithaca Holdings. Re-posted Yael’s message to Instagram and applauded her for speaking out. “I can categorically say that @scooterbraun is not only a good man who supports all women – particularly [Taylor Swift], who he has defended and advocated for behind close doors more times than I can say,” she wrote.

Demi Lovato. Braun’s client; also came to his defense on Instagram. “I have dealt with bad people in the industry and Scooter is not one of them. He’s a good man,” she wrote. Lovato also hit back at claims Todrick Hall made that Braun is homophobic. “I can guarantee you Scooter isn’t,” she said. “As a member of the LGBTQ+ community myself, he wouldn’t have signed me if he was.” Hall responded to Lovato via a series of tweets, but more on that when we get to Team Taylor.

Ty Dolla $Sign. Another client of Braun’s; wrote him a congratulatory message on Instagram that seemed to hint at the Swift drama.

Scott Borchetta. Defended Big Machine’s decision to partner with Braun; claims Swift knew about the acquisition before it went public.

Erik Logan. Big Machine board member; defended Borchetta and said of Swift, “You’re the real bully. Your power is fading.”

Halsey. One of the first celebs to come forward in support of Swift. “She deserves to own the painstaking labor of her heart,” she posted to Twitter.

Katy Perry. Reportedly signed a petition urging Swift to re-release her first six albums on Republic so she could retain ownership. “I stand with Taylor. Stay strong, my friend,” she wrote alongside her signature, per this screenshot captured by a fan. (These two confirmed they’re no longer feuding after Perry appeared in Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down” video.)

Cara Delevingne. Longtime friend of Swift’s; jumped to her defense after Hailey Baldwin called her husband, Justin Bieber, a “gentleman” for defending Braun. “Gentleman? @haileybieber @justinbieber you must be bored,” she wrote under Bieber’s post. “I wish you spent less time sticking up for men and more time trying to understand women and respecting their valid reactions.”

Todrick Hall. Also a friend of Swift’s; posted several tweets asserting his loyalty to her. “I truly hope justice is served and that my friend’s music will fall into the hands of a better human,” he wrote. He also said he believes Braun is “homophobic.”

Demi Lovato hit back against that accusation on Braun’s behalf, which incited a rift between her and Hall. “Stop using your one client who identifies as queer to stand up for you,” he wrote. “There’s no way Demi saw my tweet, that means someone from your team is reaching out to them, using them to defend you. Fight your own battles.”

Cher. Took to Twitter to announce she’s standing with Swift. “Unfortunately can relate,” she wrote.

Other celebrities who have voiced their support for Swift. Alessia Cara, HRVY, Iggy Azalea, Jack Antonoff, Sky Ferreira, Allie X, Diana Silvers, Heidi Montag, HAIM, Martha Hunt, Joseph Kahn, Mamrie Hart, Mandy Teefey, Daya, Iris Apatow, Iza, Sara Sampaio, and Gretchen Peters.





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Scooter Braun Acquired Taylor Swift's Back Catalogue. But What Does That Really Mean?


Erin M. Jacobson, a music transactional attorney in Beverly Hills who also wasn’t involved in the sale, says acquisitions of this nature occur regularly. As Jacobson explains, the seller—in this case, Borchetta—stands to make a profit upfront from the sale, while the buyer—Braun, who reportedly paid over $300 million for Big Machine—earns profit over time from acquiring ownership of the assets. Because of that, “The buyer is usually obligated to follow the terms of the purchased company’s existing contracts, meaning that Ithaca Holdings would now be responsible for collecting all earnings of the masters and paying Swift her contractual royalties.”

Taylor Swift performs onstage during the 2018 Reputation stadium tour. The album is part of her back catalogue that now belongs to Scooter Braun’s company.John Shearer/TAS18/Getty Images for TAS

Jacobson says it’s common for a label to own the masters, like Swift’s initial contract with Big Machine. “Record labels traditionally own the master recordings, and usually the artists do not have legal recourse.”

But Valentino believes there could be deeper conflicts at play here. Because Swift was negotiating with Big Machine to earn back her master recordings, as she said in her Tumblr post, there could have been other potential deals—like buyers Swift and her team were championing—that fell through, he explains. “Maybe they felt slighted in that it went to Scooter; they might have wanted it to go somewhere else and were angry that happened,” Valentino says. “I can tell you as a lawyer, there’s always more to it than we read about.”

As a part of her new deal with Universal Music Group, Swift now owns her masters and licenses for any new music released by Universal going forward. However, Jacobson says, unestablished artists—like Swift was at the start of her career—rarely have the clout or pull to retain ownership over the masters. Lou Hayat, one half of the indie rock duo The Dove And The Wolf, says these arrangements are still indicative of where the music industry stands—and Braun’s purchase over Big Machine is just another facet of the business. “While this might be an extreme case of industry-man-on-a-power-trip to control, manipulate, or bully an artist, it is unfortunately still very representative of how the music industry functions,” Hayat says. “Regardless of what people may think of Taylor Swift, I think her speaking up about this is very important and necessary.”



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