Scooter Braun has seen had quite a week, with many reports of his star artists, including Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato, dropping him as their manager have been released.
After founding his media management company, SB Projects, in 2007, Braun quickly discovered Bieber in 2008. Since then, the two have worked together to build Bieber’s career, until now. Bieber is allegedly one of the stars trying to remove themselves from Braun’s roster. Although Bieber nor any representatives for him have commented on the issue, multiple publications seem to have anonymous sources confirming the split.
Similar to Bieber leaving Braun, Ariana Grande has also recently been rumored to have parted ways with Braun. Individuals from Braun’s team have denied these claims and no one from Grande’s team has made any comments. However, according to Billboard’s anonymous sources, the two parting ways is real.
Scooter has been on a slow decline this year management wise, and it seems to only be getting worse. Idina Menzel was allegedly the first to leave SBP as she stopped working with Braun this January. Later followed by Demi Lovato, who allegedly had an amicable split from Braun this July. As news of his artists leaving SBP have begun flooding out, Braun took to Twitter earlier this week to tell his followers “Breaking news… I’m no longer managing myself.”
Many from Braun’s team have been telling reporters that Scooter is gradually transitioning from hands-on talent management to being the CEO of HYBE America. HYBE is a South Korean management company that started BTS and many other k-pop groups and artists careers. In 2021, HYBE bought Ithaca Holdings — Braun’s parent company of SBP, for over $1 billion. Since then, Braun has been co-CEO with Lenzo Yoon; that is until this year when Braun assumed the role as sole CEO of HYBE America. Claims of him focusing on being CEO of HYBE would track, given Scooter’s recent Tweet and many of his largest stars stepping back from his management.
No one is entirely sure what is going on as most of the artists have yet to comment on the situations. An anonymous source told reporters that “all of Scooter Braun’s clients are under contract and negotiations have been going on for several months as Scooter steps into his larger role as HYBE America CEO. People are spreading rumors based on what they know, but they are off. Scooter’s team at SB Projects are still handling both Justin and Ariana as they work through what this new structure looks like.” The transition to a CEO role is certainly the nicest theory that has arose, with some even going as far to question misconduct.
Since no direct representative from Bieber, Grande, Lovato, Menzel, or even Braun himself have made any comments clearing the air of these speculations, the public will just have to wait and see what transpires.