In case you missed today’s bad news, Scooter Braun has sold Taylor Swift’s masters — once again, not to her. This is bad news because an artist should have the right to own their own music, especially when they have the necessary fortune to buy it back. Taylor alleges that before she even had a chance to bid on her work, Braun hit her with the kind of NDA that silences women forever, one that Taylor’s legal team described as reminiscent of sexual assault accusers hush money cases. Overreaction much?
Anyway, as we all know Taylor, she would clearly never sign something like that, and a company called Shamrock Holdings, which is affiliated with Disney, now owns Taylor’s work. It sucks for Taylor and her fans, but the situation also sucks for fans of Scooter’s other pop star clients, namely Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato. These fans have to figure out where they stand given Scooter’s behavior. Some are reacting by not wanting to listen to Demi or Ari’s music since they’re staying silent about the situation:
Scooter Braun trying to silence Taylor makes me think that anyone who supports this man is an accomplice, therefore they don’t deserve my streams. pic.twitter.com/3Hgss7LZiA
— Beyoncé Updates (@cowboylikecarte) November 17, 2020
I have a real hard time supporting artists that I love like ariana grande and Demi Lovato for being okay with the way that scooter treats Taylor Swift and not speaking out against management. Like I love their music but also wtf.
— Alex ✨ (@alexhreads) November 17, 2020
Others wonder if Scooter would abuse his power like this with Taylor, why not with those he has even more control over? Or if those artists have already signed an NDA that prevents them from speaking out:
https://twitter.com/lonelytattoo/status/1328549663528673281
The fact that scooter had the audacity to suggest an NDA to Taylor when she’s one of the most powerful person in the industry. It makes me think if he got his clients to sign them too so they never speak out against him. No wonder someone like Ariana is silent. pic.twitter.com/2pNjnMcYmk
— M#BLM (@smgculture) November 17, 2020
https://twitter.com/altarismypussy/status/1328493751539355649
I just realized when Ariana tries to change labels or make her own Scooter Braun is gonna pull the shit he's doing w Taylor
— jade 🦇 self sabotage (@swtave) November 16, 2020
https://twitter.com/bieberseverlark/status/1328512984864403456
https://twitter.com/Alexiscomindown/status/1328490481551077377
There’s plenty of gray here, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but the most important thing to remember is there’s zero reason to pit Ariana and Taylor against each other for a man’s behavior. His connection to Ariana aside, she doesn’t have to be held accountable for his actions, and her and Taylor have never had bad blood, remember?
looks like i have to bring back this picture since some people think that it's okay to go hating on Ariana when it isn't when some of us know they low key support each other pic.twitter.com/pnjEGZQ3Ea
— super real Margo (@unforgivenswift) November 17, 2020
If fans are disappointed Ariana and Demi aren’t speaking out, that makes sense too, but boycotting their music is probably not the way to help Taylor here. Now, we wait and see what else happens in this saga.
