Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato have parted ways with Scooter Braun. Here's everything you need to know about the music manager.
Susie Heller,Eve Crosbie
- Scooter Braun has been dropped by two of his biggest clients, Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato.
- There are also rumors that the celebrity manager could soon part ways with Justin Bieber.
After discovering the 21st century's biggest pop act, Justin Bieber, in the 2000s, Scooter Braun became "the defining music executive of the social media era, known for aggressive online cross-promotion between clients," according to The New York Times.
However, it looks like his empire could come crumbling down any day now as a string of his most successful clients have begun to part ways with him.
From his days working as a party promoter in Atlanta to his $300 million acquisitionthat got him on the wrong side of Taylor Swift, here's everything you need to know about Scooter Braun.
Scooter Braun, 42, was born in New York City and grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Braun's parents, Ervin and Susan, raised Scooter (real name Scott), and his siblings Adam, Sam, Cornelio, and Liza in the suburbs. In their household, sports like basketball, football, and swimming, were given priority, according to The New Yorker.
He was his high school class president at Greenwich High School, according to Atlanta Creative Loafing.
Scooter is a childhood nickname that just stuck around — and he hates it.
Scooter's parents named him Scott but everyone else in his life knows him by his nickname Scooter, which he was given while attending a first-grade birthday party.
"I hated it, and my brother found out that I hated it and kept calling me Scooter," he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2012.
The nickname stuck, with the manager confirming that — with the exception of his parents — "pretty much everyone else calls me Scooter."
Braun said basketball played a huge role in his career: 'The game made me professional.'
Basketball was especially important in Braun's upbringing, he told The New Yorker.
His father Ervin founded an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team called the Connecticut Flame. In 1998, when Scooter was 17, the Brauns became the legal guardians for two AAU players who once played on the Mozambique national team — Sam Manhanga, then-15, and Cornelio Gouibunda, then-14.
"The game made me professional," he said of the real-world business values he believes he has because of it. "That I shouldn't be afraid of a full-court press. It's my fault when we lose; it's their victory when we win."
Braun attended Emory University where he played D-III basketball and earned money by promoting parties.
According to Emory University, Braun hit the ground running when he got to Georgia.
The college student promoted parties at clubs — no, not fraternities — around Atlanta. The events attracted high-profile guests like Usher and Ludacris.
Through his club promotion work, Braun got a job offer to run marketing at So So Def records. He never finished his degree at Emory.
As Braun tells it, Jermaine Dupri once approached the then-college student at an event and offered him the role of head of marketing at his label, So So Def. Braun accepted, left Emory without a degree, and that was that, according to The New Yorker.
After leaving So So Def, he took to alternative routes to finding work and new talent. That's when he stumbled upon little-known rapper Asher Roth on MySpace.
During an interview with Complex's "Blueprint" podcast, Braun said that when he was fired from So So Def he had enough money to sustain himself and his two, then-unknown clients for 13 months. 11 months in, things were looking bleak — money was running low and his clients weren't quite having the luck he'd hoped for.
On a particularly hard day, he called his dad crying. And then, Roth surprised him.
"The next day Asher came in and played me 'I Love College,' and the publishing deal saved our company," Braun said. "It just shows you how close success and failure lie."
Around the same time, he found a young singer from Canada on YouTube. His name? Justin Bieber.
Although he didn't have immediate success with major labels, Bieber grew into one of the world's biggest pop stars.
As legend has it — and as Braun told The New Yorker in 2012 — he pitched Bieber to Usher and Justin Timberlake. Both men were interested in signing the young singer. It was up to Bieber, who chose to be mentored by Usher and signed to Island Def Jam.
The rest was pop history.
Braun once said he considers himself a 'camp counselor for pop stars.'
While Bieber was the flagship star for his brand, Braun continues to bring his expertise to a long list of clients.
Braun seems to have a hand in every pot in the music industry. Per his website, he has managed clients including Kanye West, Ariana Grande, Usher, Karlie Kloss, Tori Kelly, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Black Eyed Peas, and Martin Garrix.
In 2018, he branched out into film, forming Mythos Studios, which seeks to make movies based on comic book franchises.
In 2018, Braun teamed up with Marvel Studios' founding chairman David Maisel to create Mythos Studios, their own studio focused on creating comic book movies and franchises, Vulture reported.
At the time it was reported that the studio has three movies in development, "Fathom" and "Soulfire" — based on the cult Aspen Comics — and "Cupid," which is slated to feature Justin Bieber as the titular character.
While the movies haven't made it to the big screen in the five years which have passed, The Hollywood Reporter said in May 2023 that "Cupid" is still in development (and Beiber is still attached). There have been no updates on the status of the other two movies.
Braun is also involved in philanthropy, including the March for Our Lives.
In 2017, Billboard called Braun "Music's First Responder."
He's organized events like the Hand in Hand telethon (co-sponsored with Bun B) to raise money for the victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Along with his client Ariana Grande, he led the One Love Manchester benefit show for the victims of the terrorist bombing at the pop star's May 2017 concerts.
He also lent an organizational hand to the student organizers of the anti-gun violence March for Our Lives held in Washington, D.C., in 2018, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Braun has a large stable of labels and companies. It briefly included Big Machine Records, which he purchased in 2019. He sold the label to South Korean company Hybe in 2021.
In June 2019, Braun's company, Ithaca Holdings LLC, acquired Big Machine Label Group.
In the $330 million purchase, Braun gained control of the masters of Taylor Swift's first six albums, which she had put out with the Nashville-based label before she signed a new contract with Republic Records.
Swift's six-album masters made up $140 million of that valuation, according to Billboard.
The following year, Ithaca Holdings sold Swift's masters to Shamrock Holdings for a reported $405 million, making Ithaca a $265-million profit, the outlet reported.
In April 2021, it was announced that South Korean company Hybe had acquired Ithaca Holdings, including Big Machine, in a $1.05 billion deal. As part of the sale, Braun became Hybe America's CEO and joined the company's board of directors.
Braun's purchase of Big Machine caused him to butt heads with Swift, who said she was not given a fair chance to purchase her own masters
Swift was the first client of the label, which was founded in 2005, and arguably its most profitable. A few hours after it was announced that Braun had purchased Big Machine, the singer-songwriter penned a blog post on Tumblr in which she said she had tried to buy her masters for years but was not given a chance.
Instead, she had said she was offered the chance to sign another contract that would require her to create six more albums under the label in exchange for the masters of the first six, which she felt was "unacceptable"
She added that she was unaware that Braun — whom she described as an "incessant, manipulative bully" — would be the one buying her masters, until it was publicly announced.
"Scooter has stripped me of my life's work, that I wasn't given an opportunity to buy," she wrote. "Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it."
In no uncertain terms, she also decried Big Machine CEO's Scott Borchetta's role in the scenario.
"This is my worst case scenario," she wrote. "This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term 'loyalty' is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says 'Music has value', he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it. "
Swift's post sparked a widespread reaction across the industry.
It seems like everyone had an opinion about the matter.After Swift posted on Tumblr, Bieber fired back with a long Instagram caption directed toward Swift.
Hailey Bieber, model and wife of the singer, commented on the post, calling him a "gentleman." But Cara Delevingne commented that he missed the point and called Bieber out in the comments for "tearing women down."
Borchetta responded in a lengthy post of his own, denying Swift's account of the deal. Borchetta provided screenshots of contracts and transcripts of text messages sent to Swift.
Yael Cohen, Braun's wife at the time, also responded on Instagram claiming that the world has watched Swift "collect and drop friends like wilted flowers." Demi Lovato, who is managed by Braun, also called him a "good man" on her Instagram Story.
But across the industry, many who are not managed by the mogul have shown their support for Swift. Halsey, Iggy Azalea, and Todrick Hall (once formerly in Braun's stable) among others, have spoken out in her defense.
Over the last few months, some of Braun's biggest clients have parted ways with him. J Balvin, who signed with Braun in 2019, announced he was moving to new management in May.
The Columbian singer, best known for his hits "Mi Gente" and "I Like It," has been managed by Roc Nation since his departure from Braun's SB Projects in May 2023, according to Billboard.
It then emerged in August that Demi Lovato had also dropped Braun as a manager in what sources told Variety was an 'amicable' and 'mutual' decision.
Billboard was the first to report the news that the "Cool for the Summer" singer was seeking new management after splitting with Braun sometime in July.
The outlet said that Lovato, who first signed with Braun in 2019, does not yet have new management ahead of the release of her new album, "Revamped," in September.
A source reportedly told Variety that the decision was mutual and amicable. Things certainly seemed good between the pair as just two days before Billboard and Variety's reports were released, Braun wished the singer a happy birthday on his Instagram Stories and called her "one of the kindest souls out there."
Representatives for Lovato and Braun did not respond to a request for comment.
It quickly emerged that Ariana Grande, another of Braun's biggest clients, had also dropped him.
Grande, who had been with Braun and his SB Projects since 2013 when she released her debut album "Yours Truly," has also parted ways with the manager.
The split was first reported by Puck reporter Matthew Belloni on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.
Billboard then reported that sources close to the situation had confirmed the news to them.
Braun and Grande were seemingly on good terms up until May of this year, as the music mogul posted to Instagram photos of himself and the singer having dinner in the UK where Grande has been shooting the upcoming musical, "Wicked."
Representatives for Grande did not respond to a request for comment.
Justin Bieber is still under contract but it has been reported that he is in the process of seeking new management.
The same journalist who was the first to report that Grande had dropped Braun, also reported that the Canadian pop star has been looking for a new agency or manager, although this was quickly denied by Bieber's representatives, per the BBC.
Belloni stated that according to multiple sources, Beiber and Braun haven't spoken in several months and that while neither side is confirming a split for now, they are headed their separate ways.
Bieber has been with Braun for the entirety of his singing career. Braun discovered Bieber in 2007 after he came across then then-12-year-old's YouTube where he uploaded videos of himself singing. He then signed Bieber, beginning their 16-year working relationship.
Braun steadied Bieber's career through tough times, including his string of arrests for vandalism, dangerous driving, and assault and periods of low mental health.
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