d e l i c a t e

For a healthier option, Lover will be out August 23.

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

This show is so fuckign funny, I’m

Taylor Swift performs “…Ready for It?” onstage during the Reputation Stadium Tour at AT&T Stadium on October 5, 2018 in Arlington, Texas.

and i know i make the same mistakes every time bridges burn, i never learn, at least i did one thing right

everyone swimming in a champagne sea

If you’re anything like me,

I’m sorry.

But Darling, it’s going to be okay.

People Talking About Taylor Swift (insp.)

UM @hayleykiyoko THAT WAS INSANE!! Thank you so much for coming to surprise the crowd tonight at @gillettestadium - THAT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!! So stoked this was your first stadium performance, and you absolutely killed it 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Reputation Stadium Tour: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (July 13th, 2018)

Ever since I was about 16 years old, I’ve been in this sort of cycle. I would put out an album, go on tour, and put out an album, go on tour, put out an album, go on tour. And then with this last album, when I went away and started making Reputation I decided I would take a little more time off, to figure out what my life would be like if there wasn’t a spotlight on it all the time. And I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart, for understanding that I needed that. And even more so, I’d like to thank you a million times for being here when I got back.