Taylor Swift has disowned a new live album released under her name, calling it tasteless and “shameless greed” amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The album, Live from Clear Channel Stripped 2008, was recorded when Swift was 18, around the release of her Grammy-winning second album, Fearless. The live album has been released by Big Machine, Swift’s former label that was bought by music manager Scooter Braun from its founder, Scott Borchetta. Swift has frequently criticised Braun and Borchetta – leading Braun to allege death threats from fans to his family – and is planning to rerecord and rerelease her six albums put out by Big Machine to regain some control over her back catalogue.
In a post on Instagram, Swift said: “This release is not approved by me. It looks to me like Scooter Braun and his financial backers, 23 Capital, Alex Soros and the Soros family and the Carlyle Group have seen the latest balance sheets and realised that paying $330 MILLION wasn’t exactly a wise choice and they need money.”
She added: “In my opinion … Just another case of shameless greed in the time of coronavirus. So tasteless, but very transparent.”
Swift’s criticism of Braun has a long history. After he bought Big Machine, Swift accused Braun of “incessant, manipulative” bullying over the years via orchestrated feuds with his clients Kanye West and Justin Bieber, which Braun denied. She later claimed he was preventing her from performing her own music at US awards ceremony, which Braun also denied.
