Scott Borchetta (born July 3, 1962) is an American record executive and founder of the
Big Machine Label Group
Big Machine Records is an American record label, distributed by Universal Music Group. Big Machine is based on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee. The label was founded in September 2005 by former DreamWorks Records executiv ...
. He started the label in 2005 with
Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her autobiographical songwriting, artistic versatility, and Cultural impact of Taylor Swift, cultural impact, Swift is one of the Best selling artists, w ...
as its first signed artist and 13 employees, he served as its president/CEO, encompassing four imprints: Big Machine Records, Nashville Harbor Records & Entertainment, The Valory Music Co. and Nash Icon Records. In 2015, he became an in-house mentor on ''
American Idol
''American Idol'' is an American Music competition, singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle (company), Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It a ...
'' in the program's 14th and 15th seasons. He is also a
sports car racing
Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing that uses sports cars with two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built Sports prototype, sports prototypes, which are the highest level in sports car racing; or grand to ...
driver in the
Trans-Am Series
The Trans-Am Series presented by Pirelli is a sports car racing series held in North America. Founded in 1966, it is sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). Primarily based in the United States, the series competes on a variety of ...
and owner of
NASCAR Xfinity Series
The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level NASCAR Cup Series, Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a Undercard, support ...
team
Big Machine Racing.
Before Big Machine, Borchetta was a race car driver and executive at the Nashville divisions of
DreamWorks Records
DreamWorks Records (often referred in copyright notices as SKG Music, LLC) was an American record label founded in 1996 by David Geffen, Mo Ostin, his son Michael Ostin and Lenny Waronker as a subsidiary of DreamWorks Pictures. The label opera ...
and
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc. established in 1972, though MCA had released recordings under that name in the UK from the 1960s. The label achieved success in the 1970s through the 1980s, often by acquiring other ...
as well as
MTM Records.
Early life
Borchetta was born in
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank had a Census-estimated population of 102,755 as of 2023. The city was ...
to parents Shari and Mike Borchetta. He grew up in the
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...
of Southern California in the 1970s. His father, Mike Borchetta, worked in record promotions for several Los Angeles record labels, including
Capitol Records
Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...
,
RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
and
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...
. In 1978, when Borchetta was 16, his father moved to Nashville to start his own independent record promotion company.
Career
Early career
Interested in life beyond Los Angeles, Borchetta began to pursue a career in music. After playing in several rock bands, he left California and moved to Nashville with his father. There, Borchetta played bass in a country band and spent his days working in his father's mail room promoting country singles. After 8 months on the road, he left his band since they were not finding success. While working with his father, Borchetta learned about the music industry and how it operates, and used this knowledge to pursue jobs at record labels. In 1985, he got a job at MTM Records, where he stayed for three years. He then spent two years working as an independent promoter before working in promotion and artist development at several other record labels, including
MCA Nashville Records
Music Corporation of America, formerly known as Universal Music Group Nashville, is Universal Music Group's country music subsidiary. It was officially opened in 1945 as MCA Nashville and Mercury Nashville which opened on New Year's Day 1950 a ...
,
DreamWorks Nashville and
Universal Music Nashville.
Big Machine Label Group
In 2005, Borchetta left
Universal Music Nashville to start his own independent record label,
Big Machine Records. Borchetta disagreed with how major labels run their business, and felt that he and his friend Neil Adams could run his own label more efficiently than what he had seen.
Borchetta signed his first artist, singer-songwriter
Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her autobiographical songwriting, artistic versatility, and Cultural impact of Taylor Swift, cultural impact, Swift is one of the Best selling artists, w ...
(whom he had met in 2004) when she was 14 years old. Swift went on to become Big Machine's most successful artist and win the label two
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
s for
Album of the Year for the albums ''
Fearless'' at the
2010 Grammy Awards and ''
1989
1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...
'' at the
2016 Grammy Awards.
On June 30, 2019, Ithaca Holdings, run by
Scooter Braun, bought Big Machine Records, with Borchetta staying on as CEO. This transaction included the masters of Swift's first six albums. Swift voiced her frustrations in a
Tumblr
Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...
post, saying to have been trying to buy the masters for years and described Braun as an "incessant, manipulative bully".
Swift also said Borchetta's loyalty was only through contracts, and that he knew "exactly what he was doing" when making this deal with Ithaca Holdings.
Swift expressed that these men were "controlling a woman who did not want to be associated with them".
The dispute escalated throughout the year, both parties claiming to be owed millions of dollars from the other. Swift accused Braun and Borchetta of holding her back from being able to perform her older songs during her
American Music Awards
The American Music Awards (AMAs) is an annual American music awards show produced by Dick Clark Productions since 1974. Nominees are selected on commercial performance such as sales and airplay. Winners are determined by a poll of the public and ...
for her Artist of the Decade award, as well as for her
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
documentary, ''
Miss Americana''. On the same day Swift posted on her Tumblr account, Borchetta went on Big Machine Records and posted his own statement. He said he forewarned Swift through text the night before. "Taylor and I remained on very good terms when she told me she wanted to speak with other record companies and see what was out there for her. I never got in her way and wished her well." He said that she had the opportunity to own not just her recordings, but everything else.
Television work
In its
14th season, Borchetta became the senior mentor of the reality music competition ''
American Idol
''American Idol'' is an American Music competition, singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle (company), Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It a ...
''.
In February 2017, Canadian media company
Bell Media
Bell Media Inc. (Canadian French, French: ) is a Canadian media conglomerate that is the mass media subsidiary of BCE Inc. (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, the owner of telecommunications company Bell Canada). Its operations include nati ...
announced that it had partnered with Borchetta to develop a new, international
television format that would "uncover, develop, and promote pop culture's next musical superstars".
The new series, ''
The Launch'', premiered in January 2018, with Borchetta as executive producer.
Racing
In his youth, Borchetta competed in
motocross
Motocross is a form of off-road motorcycle racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. The sport evolved from motorcycle trials competitions held in the United Kingdom.
History
Motocross first evolved in Britain from motorcycle trials competi ...
and
quarter midget racing in Southern California. He has said in an interview that he became interested in racing after attending the
1970 California 500.
After a dormancy as he focused on music, he began racing
legends cars in 1995 at
Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway as part of the Summer Legends Shootout Series founded by country music group
Brooks & Dunn.
In 1999, he moved to the
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...
SuperTruck Weekly Series and won three consecutive championships from 2003 to 2005, and also raced in the Valvoline Cup Truck Series.
He was inducted into the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway Hall of Fame in 2020; his SuperTruck crew chief James Buttrey was enshrined a year later. In March 2021, Borchetta was named executive advisor to the Hall of Fame.
Borchetta befriended NASCAR crew chief
Ray Evernham while filming a 2014 episode of Evernham's television series ''AmeriCarna'', and Evernham invited him to drive a 1972
Chevrolet Corvette
The Chevrolet Corvette is a line of American two-door, two-seater sports cars manufactured and marketed by General Motors under the Chevrolet marque since 1953. Throughout eight generations, indicated sequentially as C1 to C8, the Corvette is not ...
in the
Sportscar Vintage Racing Association.
He won the SVRA Group 6 national championship in 2020.
In June 2020, Borchetta debuted in the
Trans-Am Series
The Trans-Am Series presented by Pirelli is a sports car racing series held in North America. Founded in 1966, it is sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). Primarily based in the United States, the series competes on a variety of ...
TA2 class at
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. A year later, when Trans-Am joined the
IndyCar Series
The IndyCar Series, officially known as the NTT IndyCar Series for sponsorship reasons, is the highest class of American open-wheel car racing in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of various sanctioning bodies sinc ...
at the new
Music City Grand Prix in Nashville, Big Machine Records assumed
naming rights
Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...
of the weekend while Borchetta entered the Trans-Am support event. Borchetta acts as the chief promoter of the event, which moved the
Nashville Superspeedway from 2024 onward after development eliminated the downtown-Nashville street circuit.
Big Machine Racing, a
NASCAR Xfinity Series
The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level NASCAR Cup Series, Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a Undercard, support ...
team owned by Borchetta, began competition in 2021 with
Jade Buford as the driver
for 32 of the 33 races, with
Danny Bohn running the other. In 2022, Borchetta fielded his car for a variety of drivers, these being
Marco Andretti, Jade Buford,
Ross Chastain,
Austin Dillon,
Ty Dillon,
Kaz Grala,
Parker Kligerman,
Tyler Reddick,
Nick Sanchez, and
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.Owner Statistics - Racing Reference
/ref> In 2023, Kligerman returned to the team to run the full schedule, making the playoffs. Buford also returned to the team on a part time basis driving a second entry.
References
External links
Big Machine Records
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Borchetta, Scott
1962 births
Living people
People from Burbank, California
American entertainment industry businesspeople
Businesspeople from Nashville, Tennessee
NASCAR drivers
NASCAR team owners
Trans-Am Series drivers