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Taylor Swift’s AMA medley is all cleared insists Big Machine
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 19 November 2019
Taylor Swift has the all-clear to sing Taylor Swift songs during a Taylor Swift honouring section of the upcoming Taylor Swift Awards. I mean, the upcoming American Music Awards. That much is now abundantly clear. I think. Maybe. Very little else about the ongoing beef between Swift and her former label Big Machine is clear, though.
Except that Swift hates the Big Machine. We know that. Everyone knows that. There are tribes in the deepest Amazon cut off from the rest of humanity for centuries who must know that. Swift hates the fact that artist manager Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings now owns Big Machine and its recordings catalogue, including all but her most recent album. She plans to channel that hatred into re-recording those records just as soon as her old record contract allows. You know, in a marvellous “fuck you” to Braun and the Big Machine.
The hatred cuts both ways though. As do the “fuck you” sentiments. Probably. And so – or at least according to Swift – the Big Machine has been trying to fuck with her projects until she promises to not fuck with the Big Machine by re-recording her old albums. That included the Big Machine exercising a veto it may or may not have over her upcoming appearance at the aforementioned AMAs. If the makers of the AMAs film Swift performing a hits medley, that’s a recording, and the Big Machine can still stop new recordings of her old hits.
But Big Machine doesn’t want to do that. We can’t stress that enough. I mean, Swift says it wanted to. And it probably did want to. I mean, why wouldn’t you? It would be a super “fuck you” to a relentlessly moaning pop star. But, as of yesterday, the Big Machine was very clear on this. Swift’s AMA hits medley has the all-clear to go ahead. In fact the Big Machine has done a specific deal with AMA makers Dick Clark Productions to ensure it is so.
“The Big Machine Label Group and Dick Clark Productions announce that they have come to terms on a licensing agreement that approves their artists’ performances to stream post show and for re-broadcast on mutually approved platforms”, the two companies said yesterday, after a weekend of endless chatter about the latest Swift v Big Machine hoo haa.
Sort of clarifying what vetoes the Big Machine may or may not have over its artists singing their songs at the AMAs, the statement went on: “It should be noted that recording artists do not need label approval for live performances on television or any other live media. Record label approval is only needed for contracted artists’ audio and visual recordings and in determining how those works are distributed”.
So, that’s all clear right? Oh, except, and this is important, Dick Clark Productions hasn’t announced anything. Yes, it was the co-announcee of that announcement. But at the same time it wasn’t. AMA maker Dick Clark Productions isn’t in the business of announcing things. It’s been making telly shows for 60 years. You don’t have 60 years of success in making telly shows by going around announcing things.
“At no time did Dick Clark Productions agree to, create, authorise or distribute a statement in partnership with Big Machine Label Group regarding Taylor Swift’s performance at the 2019 American Music Awards”, the company, well, erm, announced yesterday. “Any final agreement on this matter needs to be made directly with Taylor Swift’s management team. We have no further comment”. A further comment, after all, would be an announcement.
“The Big Machine Label Group informed Dick Clark Productions today that they have agreed to grant all licences of their artists’ performances to stream post show and for re-broadcast on mutually approved platforms”, the Big Machine then said in a subsequently amended statement.
It then added, once again, in case anyone missed it first time round, that “it should be noted that recording artists do not need label approval for live performances on television or any other live media. Record label approval is only needed for contracted artists’ audio and visual recordings and in determining how those works are distributed”.
So that’s all that cleared up. I think. Maybe.
Swift should now instigate another big “fuck you” to the Big Machine by using her AMA slot to perform a medley of Prince songs. Which would also be a nice reminder that pop stars spectacularly falling out with their labels is hardly a new phenomenon. By Prince standards, Swift and the Big Machine are due to become friends again in 2039.
Or maybe Braun can negotiate some sort of truce sooner. Although we said the hatred and “fuck you” shenanigans cut both ways, he is apparently busy trying to distance himself from the ongoing Swift v Big Machine bust up, insisting he has no active control over the label or the statements it issues. It’s Big Machine founder Scott Borchetta who is still in control.
“Scooter is frustrated because his name is being dragged in the mud”, an unnamed source has told E! News. “He doesn’t run Big Machine or have operational control of [the] company. He hasn’t taken part in these negotiations”.
So who’s to blame? Who do we believe? Whose side should we take? I know, let’s believe no one and blame them all. Fuck Big Machine. Fuck Dick Clark. Fuck Taylor Swift. Fuck Scooter Braun. Fuck you, one and all!
