Taylor Swift is still in conflict about performing her old songs at the 2019 American Music Awards.
Last week, when Swift was forbidden to perform her old songs at the upcoming AMAs, it set off a firestorm that dragged in politicians including Senator Elizabeth Warren and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who attacked Big Machine’s private equity backers.
Swift made a public plea to regain control of her own music.
Big Machine Records claimed that it had come to an agreement with Dick Clark Productions, which would enable Taylor Swift to perform her old songs at the AMAs show.
The agreement approves their “artists’ performances to stream post show and for re-broadcast on mutually approved platforms which includes the upcoming American Music Awards performances.”
“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,” the agreement added.
But the show producer Dick Clark Productions deny the agreement saying: “At no time did Dick Clark Productions agree to, create, authorize or distribute a statement in partnership with Big Machine Label Group regarding Taylor Swift’s performance at the 2019 American Music Awards,”
“Any final agreement on this matter needs to be made directly with Taylor Swift’s management team. We have no further comment.”
This throws Big Machine Records’ previous claim into doubt.
Swift said the Big Machine camp’s legal team argued that they would consider her performance of any older songs on the awards show, where she is scheduled to be crowned “artist of the decade,” to be a re-recording of those songs, given that the program is taped for later broadcast on the West Coast.
Reportedly, Swift will now be able to perform her past hits, but the future of a planned Netflix documentary is still in doubt.
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