Taylor Swift issued a statement Friday hitting back at Big Machine Records after the company denied blocking her from performing her old songs at the American Music Awards.
“Big Machine is trying to deflect and make this about money by saying she owes them but, an independent, professional auditor has determined that Big Machine owes Taylor $7.9 million dollars of unpaid royalties over several years,” a statement from the 29-year-old singer read, according to Fox News in a piece published Friday. (RELATED: Joe Jonas After Hearing Taylor Swift Apologize For Putting Him On Blast: ‘It Feels Nice’)
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“The truth is, on October 28, 2019 at 5:17 p.m. the Vice President, Rights Management and Business Affairs from Big Machine Label Group sent Taylor Swift’s team the following: ‘Please be advised that BMLG will not agree to issue licenses for existing recordings or waivers of its re-recording restrictions in connection with these two projects: The Netflix documentary and The Alibaba ‘Double Eleven’ event,” the statement added.(RELATED: Taylor Swift’s ‘Reputation Stadium Tour’ Hits Netflix And Here’s What Everyone Is Saying)
New @taylorswift13 statement pic.twitter.com/yTRMwXWHqq
— Anastasia (@AnastasiaElyseW) November 15, 2019
The statement from the “Shake It Off” hitmaker continued,”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.”
“In addition, yesterday Scott Borchetta, CEO and founder of Big Machine Label Group, flatly denied the request for both American Music Awards and Netflix,” the Swift statement read. “Please notice in Big Machine’s statement, they never actually deny either claim Taylor said last night in her post.”
As previously reported, the “Me!” hitmaker made an urgent plea to her fans with a lengthy post about how she was prevented from performing her old songs at next weeks American Music Awards show and said the move by Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta means she won’t be able to include footage from her early performances or any old music in an upcoming Netflix documentary.
It comes after Braun acquired the rights to Swift’s master recordings when he purchased Big Machine Records earlier this year.