From Kanye West to Justin Bieber, Scooter Braun has led fruitful partnerships with some of the biggest names in modern music. But that track record of success hasn’t stopped a number of A-list clients from reportedly cutting ties with the manager and music executive in recent weeks.
Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, and Idina Menzel are the latest singers to allegedly split from the 42-year old and his management company SB Projects. Puck News co-founder Matthew Belloni first reported Grande’s departure Monday on social media, though sources have shared conflicting information with Billboard and Variety on whether this is true. Lovato, meanwhile, is searching for new management after breaking with Braun last month, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Then, on Tuesday morning, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that a source had confirmed Frozen star Menzel parted ways with the music manager in January of this year. Notably, she is still listed among the “past and present” clients on Braun’s website, along with Grande and Lovato.
Recent News about Demi Lovato
News of their exits comes after reggaeton giant J Balvin left Braun in May to join Roc Nation. So why are so many artists ditching Braun—also known for his feud with Taylor Swift over her music rights—and the SB Projects brand? Here’s everything you need to know about his career, controversies, and rapidly changing client list.
Education and Early Career
Growing up, Scott “Scooter” Samuel Braun followed his family’s aspirations in basketball, not music. In an 2018 interview with The Ringer, he explained how his father coached high school and AAU hoops, and his three younger brothers played NCAA Division I at Brown, Georgetown, and American universities.
Braun starred on the court at Greenwich High School in Connecticut and—wanting to play as a freshman in college—attended Emory University in Atlanta. But within a year, he began to focus less on basketball and more on lavish parties he began throwing at the Riviera nightclub. Soon, according to Greenwich Magazine, music giants like Usher and Ludacris were clamoring to attend a Braun bash. “My friends will say it was by instinct,” Braun told the magazine. “Part of it was the hustler mentality that my father wanted to get out of me. I was very quick. I figured things out.”
According to an Atlanta-based blog, Braun accepted a job in the marketing department of So So Def records at age 19 and, within a year, was promoted to executive director of marketing. He dropped out of school but quickly became a rising star in the hip-hop world, throwing parties in five major U.S. cities for Ludacris and Eminem’s 2002 Anger Management Tour, as well as Atlanta in conjunction with the 2003 NBA All-Star Weekend.
His reputation as a manager would continue to build over the next few years, until his acquisition of a teenage YouTube star cemented his status as a music heavyweight.
From Bieber to Big Business
Getty ImagesScooter Braun discovered Justin Bieber on YouTube and signed him to his record label.
Braun founded SB Projects in 2007 and quickly aligned himself with a couple of musicians on the rise. Already having discovered rapper Asher Roth through social media, Braun found a YouTube video of a young Justin Bieber singing Ne-Yo’s “So Sick.” According to The New York Times, he was so impressed that he contacted Bieber’s mother through school board members and convinced her to let the Canadian teenager meet with him. Braun and Usher signed Bieber to their record label, Raymond Braun Media Group, by the end of 2008.
More Music Managers
In addition to Bieber, Braun has added other star clients like Psy, Carly Rae Jepsen, Ava Max, David Guetta, Lil Dicky, and Kelly Rowland. He signed Ariana Grande to his record label in 2013 and became Demi Lovato’s manager in 2019.
Braun expanded SB Projects into other forms of media, with its movie and TV division responsible for projects like the 2011 concert movie Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, as well as the CBS drama series Scorpion and FX comedy Dave. The company is also an investor of companies like Uber, Spotify, and Pinterest, according to its website.
All told, Celebrity Net Worth estimates Braun’s net worth at around $500 million.
Taylor Swift Controversy
Braun used his expansive capital to complete a purchase of Big Machine Records in 2019. The $300 million acquisition gave him control of the music catalog from Taylor Swift’s first five albums. But he had previously sowed bad blood with the pop star for his minor role in her much-publicized feud with Kanye West, a former client.
In 2016—seven years after his viral interruption of Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards—West released the song “Famous” while partnered with Braun. According to NBC’s Today show, the track and its accompanying video featured sexual references about Swift, which she insisted she never approved.
Dive Deeper
Swift was quick to condemn Braun’s Big Machine deal, saying on Tumblr, “Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.” She also accused Braun of coordinating his clients into bullying her.
Braun eventually sold Swift’s catalog to a private company in November 2020, with the singer quickly announcing in a tweet that she had begun re-recording her songs to own the rights to the masters.
The music executive finally addressed the situation in a 2021 interview with Variety, saying that he offered to meet with Swift multiple times and was refused. “I regret and it makes me sad that Taylor had that reaction to the deal,” he said. “All of what happened has been very confusing and not based on anything factual.”
The dispute has tarnished his reputation in the eyes of many music fans, leading to a lot of interest in his company’s recent exodus.
Why Is Everyone Leaving?
No concrete explanation has been given for the reported wave of defectors from SB Projects, but that hasn’t stopped speculation about Braun’s future.
According to Variety, Braun has only been tangentially involved in the careers of his biggest clients in recent years, as other executives handle day-to-day operations. Sources told the outlet he is focusing on his role of CEO of HYBE America, the South Korean entertainment company behind K-pop band BTS. He sold Ithaca Holdings, the parent company of SB Projects, to HYBE in 2021 for more than $1 billion. “He’s getting out of management—he has been for years. That’s the real story,” one source told Variety. However, another source suggested unpleasant revelations about Braun might soon emerge, simply saying, “He’s imploding.”
Whatever is happening, Braun will undoubtedly continue to be one of the most polarizing faces in the music industry.
Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.
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