Taylor Swift Insists She's Speaking Her Truth, Despite Claims She Isn't
After a lengthy post that went viral on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, and just about every other platform, Taylor Swift's former label, Big Machine, claimed that it wasn't doing anything that Swift accused it of. Well, Swift's sticking to her story and People reports that sources close to the artist are insisting that she's "extremely upset" over the situation and just wants to be able to perform her own material.
"She is expressing her truth and doesn’t care what other people say," the source says. "This is her life and she finds the whole album catalog drama insanely wrong. She wants her fans to know what’s going on."
The source says that Swift just wants to give her fans what they want. Swift feels like she should be able to perform her music, have it licensed the way she wants, and be able to move forward with her personal projects.
"She is an artist who tries to share her music with her fans," the source continues. "When she isn’t able to, she will obviously be upset about it."
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After Swift's statement, Big Machine released a response, saying that she was perpetuating "false information" and that it wasn't doing anything to hinder her AMAs performance or Netflix documentary. The statement adds that the record label has no right to keep her from performing her songs live.
"As Taylor Swift's partner for over a decade, we were shocked to see her Tumblr statements yesterday based on false information. At no point did we say Taylor could not perform on the AMAs or block her Netflix special," Big Machine's statement reads. "In fact, we do not have the right to keep her from performing live anywhere. Since Taylor's decision to leave Big Machine last fall, we have continued to honor all of her requests to license her catalog to third parties as she promotes her current record in which we do not financially participate."
Swift urged her fans to take action, closing her statement with, "The message being sent to me is very clear. Basically, be a good little girl and shut up. Or you'll be punished. Please let Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun know how you feel about this."
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A Swift representative issued a statement to People that claimed Big Machine send a message saying that it "will not agree to issue licenses for existing records or waivers of its re-recording restrictions" for both a live performance in China and the Netflix documentary.
"To avoid an argument over rights, Taylor performed three songs off her new album Lover at the Double Eleven event as it was clear that Big Machine Label Group felt any televised performance of catalog songs violated her agreement," the statement continued. "In addition, yesterday Scott Borchetta, CEO and founder of Big Machine Label Group, flatly denied the request for both American Music Awards and Netflix."