Until recent days, the name of Scooter Braun was best known to fans of Taylor Swift (for a dirty story), by those of Justin Bieber (for a great story) and by connoisseurs of the world of the American music industry. . The producer and manager is talking about him today as he is losing his main artists.
His break with Demi Lovato was formalized after several days of rumors. The one with Ariana Grande is still at the unconfirmed information stage, even if several American media seem sure of their sources. And now it’s Justin Bieber who seems about to leave his historic manager.
A precocious who identifies the precocious
For those who are not part of the three categories mentioned in the first paragraph of this article, let’s remember who Scooter Braun is. From 2001, when he was only 20 years old, the young man was already a figure on the Atlanta music scene where he organized successful parties. Very quickly becoming marketing director of Jermaine Dupri’s label, he founded his company, Raymond Braun Media Group, to welcome Usher, his first take on a long list.
His stroke of genius remains to have discovered Justin Bieber before everyone else, on YouTube, when the future star was only 14 years old. Subsequently, through various companies, the businessman became the producer manager of the Black Eyed Peas, Carly Rae Jepson, Ariana Grande, which he will make the star she is today.
The Swift Affair
If Justin Bieber fans have known for a long time what their idol owes Scooter Braun, those of Taylor Swift discovered its existence in 2019, at the time of the quarrel between the singer and Kanye West (a long story that can be summarized in : Kanye West is sexist). Scooter Braun then defends his former client.
That same year, Scooter Braun bought Big Machine Records, the label where Taylor Swift recorded her first six albums. Then, the producer sells his company, Ithaca Holdings, to an investment fund. Taylor Swift finds herself unable to redeem the rights to her own recordings.
The beginning of departures
It was this affair that led Taylor Swift to embark on the re-recording and sale of each of her six albums “almost” identically, under the name “Taylor’s Version”. Just released the new version, guaranteed 100% Swift, of Speak Now. Taylor Swift’s cohort of fans has therefore held a stubborn hatred of Scooter Braun for four years now.
However, it is not this painful story that would explain the current flight of talent from the Braun team. If the entourage of Demi Lovato mentioned, in a very brief press release, an “amicable separation”, the singer also erased from her social networks any mention of her former manager.
Rumors and conjectures
Ariana Grande has not yet commented on the rumors of her separation from the manager who has accompanied her to success in recent years. And this lack of eagerness to deny the news is perceived by the specialized media as confirmation.
Similarly, the terse denial of Justin Bieber’s team is interpreted as a way to buy time.
Speculations are numerous but vague and contradictory on the reasons which would push these artists to flee Scooter Braun. Newsweek evokes “a case that will come out” and which would embarrass the customers of the producer who, until then, has made very little noise about him for his private life (married, divorced, father of three children, etc.). Billboard is especially astonished that no valid and concrete reason explains, for the time being, this flight of talents.