And when that man says ‘Music has value’, he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it. This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it. Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. (See photo) Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked. 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. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years. Some fun facts about today’s news: I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. 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. I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past. I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future.
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. For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work.