the dollhouse analogy is a LOT … if you think about it, dolls in a dollhouse have no privacy .. you can always see what they are doing .. in every room at any time….  someone is always peering in. The people who effectively reduce famous people to ‘dolls’ and don’t see them as humans anymore…  really do do just that… .they decide who is best paired with who, who’s the prettier one, who’s the outcast. Who gets to be the favorite, who is tossed to the side.

For taylor to compare being a star in the digital age to living in a dollhouse and/or being a doll makes me a) sad b) in awe of her ability to take something so complex (fame) and strip it down in a way in which everyone can understand

Who could stay? You could stay

contrary to popular belief, what men think of you is honestly like the least important thing ever lol

just wanted to let everyone know that someone with a Taylor follow is the one who leaked Scott Borchetta’s number and encouraged a bunch of fucking strangers to harass him via text and phone calls. 

if you think that’s anything but some immature, careless bullshit, you’re wrong. if you think Taylor wouldn’t be disappointed with and disgusted by that, you’re fucking stupid. there’s a difference between supporting Taylor through this and “defending” her by invading someone’s privacy and harassing them because you’re that fucking immature and bitter.

that’s all.

there’s a lot of misconception going around so let me just clear it: scooter braun’s company owns the master rights to taylor’s masters, but as songwriter to all of her songs, taylor still owns her publisher rights. these are two different things with different things attached to them.

meaning, taylor CAN still perform songs from her previous albums. the lyrics are still hers, the melodies are hers. 

and as a songwriter, yes she would still earn a part of revenue from new downloads and streams.

what scooter braun owns: the masters, meaning, the final output of the song that was put on the albums. and even though scooter wants to use these masters on tv shows or commercials or films and whatnot, because taylor still has her publisher rights, they still need her license in order to use them as such. the unfortunate thing: all the previous albums that are published under big machine as a whole will be under scooter braun and yes, he earns revenue from them. another upsetting thing: the old archive is tied to scooter braun, a man who taylor endured “incessant manipulative bullying”, a man she doesn’t want to associate with. this means whenever an opportunity will come wherein scooter wants to use any of her previous work, taylor/her team has to deal with him.

to break it down:

the masters are: the entire song in recording.

what they own: the actual copyright of the final produced song.

the publisher rights: words and melodies.

what taylor still has: her lyrics and the melodies to her own songs. which means yes, she can still rerecord them as new productions of she wants to. (but she shouldn’t have to)

Ashley isn’t going to let this go...

lover as vintage posters x

This is a reminder that you guys need to remain civil when defending Taylor in this and any other situation. You can be as angry and upset as you want but personally harassing and leaking information about these people involved and sinking to low methods to take jabs at them is too far. I’m angry, we’re all angry, but we do not look good as a fan base if we sink lower than Yael, Scooter, Scott and Justin have to take shots at Taylor. Please think before you act. We need to be the better people here.

The only way Taylor was given the “opportunity” to keep her music was to stay with his label. That’s not an opportunity, that’s bribery ladies and gentlemen.

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. 

Some fun facts about today’s news: I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years. 

Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it. (See photo) Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked. Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.

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. 

Thankfully, I am now signed to a label that believes I should own anything I create. Thankfully, I left my past in Scott’s hands and not my future. And hopefully, young artists or kids with musical dreams will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation. You deserve to own the art you make.

I will always be proud of my past work. But for a healthier option, Lover will be out August 23. 

Sad and grossed out,

💔

Taylor

SUPPORT THE EQUALITY ACT

you need to calm down [ 2019 ]

Lover, album out August 23. Cover shot by the artistic genius that is Valheria Rocha 💗 Pre-add, pre-save, pre-order (all the pre stuff you feel like doing) Can’t wait for you to hear this. taylorswift.lnk.to/LoverTu

we have to live bravely in order to truly feel alive, and that means not being ruled by our greatest fears.