The man behind Taylor Swift’s war on Spotify

Scott Borchetta Kind of a big deal.

Their name is Scott Borchetta, and he looks like the archetypal entertainment industry executive-a curly haired, country music version of Simon Cowell.
Borchetta, 52, may be the CEO of Big Machine Records, Taylor Swift’s record label. And lately he has been making it abundantly clear to anyone listening that he heavily influenced Swift’s decision last week to pull her entire back catalog from Spotify.
He articulated his thinking to Bloomberg Businessweek, which ran a detailed piece this week regarding Swift’s career.
I went to her [Swift] and said, ‘If we’re going to make a statement, let’s be very specific and bold. All of your songs has value. ’ And she agreed.
In an interview with Time, Borchetta stated that Big Machine received less than $500, 000 in Swift-related royalties through Spotify over the past year, which doesn’t square with Spotify’s claim that it paid $2 million on her music over that period-although the two sides seem to be cherry-picking data points that don’t directly compare.
Elsewhere, Borchetta claimed the Spotify snub was about respecting Swift’s biggest fans, by sparing them the actual indignity of being made fun of by their friends for purchasing music that others stream for free. But as a war of words with Spotify erupted-the loading service’s CEO fired back with his own, stirring defense of the royalties the organization pays-it became increasingly clear (if it wasn’t already) that the move through Swift’s camp was really about business.
“We’re not responsible for new business models, ” Borchetta told Businessweek. “If they work, fantastic, but it can’t be at the loss of our own business. ”
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Borchetta and Big Machine did not respond to the request for comment from Quartz for this article. But it’s not hard to find information about Borchetta’s rise to country music prominence.
According to a first-person piece released in the New York Times in 2011, the short version of his backstory is really as follows: He grew up in California in the 1970s. His parents divorced in 1978, great father, a record company executive, left for Nashville. In 1981, at the regarding 19, Borchetta followed him there, joined a country band, quit eight a few months in, and got a job in the mailroom at his father’s label.
In the nineteen eighties and ’90s he worked his way up through the Nashville outposts of numerous major record labels, rising to the executive ranks in artist promotion as well as development. During that time, he spent his weekends as a fairly serious (and moderately successful) racing car driver.
In 2005, he started Big Machine, and 2006 he signed his first artist: Swift. To borrow one of Swift’s own lyrics, after that, “everything changed. ”

Taylor Swift and Scott Borchetta

Big Machine helped turn Swift into a nation music megastar, and then transition into a genuine global phenomenon, a feat which should not be discounted, since country music typically lacks appeal outside of America (and even within certain corners of the country music community).
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Multiple reviews have suggested that the decision to pull Swift’s music from Spotify was really inspired by his desire to sell Big Machine for at least $200 million. But Borchetta has denied his label is up for sale.
In any case, it’s worth noting that Swift’s music remains available on myriad other streaming services. Spotify was probably designated because of its free tier, which allows for on-demand, all-you-can-eat listening, but with advertisements, and never offline.
Nicholas Carlson at Business Insider reported that major label Common, which distributes Big Machine’s albums (and could even be a potential buyer) tried to convince Borchetta against cutting ties with Spotify. In many ways, it looked like a dangerous bet.
The recorded music industry has been shrinking for the better part of the last 10 years as piracy and the ability to download individual songs (rather than the bundles referred to as “albums”) eviscerated sales revenue.
But a rebound looks to be in the industry’s sights. Last month, analysts at Credit Suisse projected that streaming subscriptions will overtake more traditional revenue sources, and that thanks to streaming, overall revenue growth will certainly resume by 2017.

So far, Borchetta’s strategy of sitting out the Spotify part of the revolution doesn’t seem to have hurt Swift any. Her new record, 1989, continues to shatter records. Whether that holds true remains to be seen.
But something is clear: her row with Spotify has changed the entire conversation about the future of the background music business, and streaming’s role in it.

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