“True happiness consists in enjoying the present without anxious dependence on the future,” Seneca said 20 centuries ago, “not to amuse ourselves with hopes or fears, but to be content with what we have, which is enough, because whoever is like that doesn’t want anything.” The sentence by the philosopher who was born in Roman Córdoba comes to mind for the 42-year-old New Yorker Scooter Braun. So much so that he shared it himself on his networks earlier this week. The businessman traveled by helicopter with friends and enjoyed the last days of August. Uploading the phrase to his Instagram, it seemed like a last-ditch effort to live with the philosophy at a difficult time professionally but also personally: the departure of his artist management company and therefore some of his most powerful are represented in his life: Demi Lovato and Idina Menzel and apparently Ariana Grande too. His relationship with Justin Bieber, whose career he has overseen for fifteen decades, is hanging by a thread. And all while her nemesis Taylor Swift is soaring to new heights with her multi-million dollar tour and newly recorded albums. These are dark hours for Braun.
Though his path has been considered secondary in the histories of the rich and famous, Braun has achieved that status for himself. Raised in Queens to Jewish parents – his grandparents survived the Holocaust – and with four siblings, two of whom were adopted in Mozambique, Scott Samuel Braun always distinguished himself as a class delegate and, after graduating from college in Atlanta, distinguished himself by being threw increasingly violent parties. So much so, that in the city’s hip-hop scene, he ended up organizing events for celebrities like Eminem or Jermaine Dupri, for whom he worked for four years. Fame calls for fame, and when he flew solo, he became a manager for Usher (now his confidante, they go on vacation together) or Kanye West. In 2007, when he was 26, he spotted a 12-year-old Canadian boy with bangs singing like angels on YouTube and decided to give him a chance among his clients. His name was Justin Bieber. The rest is history.
More information
To this day, and as far as is known in this tangled tale of conflicting allegations and limited transparency, Braun continues to be Bieber’s rep, keeping tabs on him in his acknowledgments and Instagram photos. But a few weeks ago, several entertainment media outlets in the US assured that the professional duo had decided to part ways. They denied it, but certain outlets like Puck continue to claim that “lawyers are involved” and that Bieber — who hasn’t released music in 30 months and canceled his tour due to illness — has “new attorneys, a new agency, and a new business representative.” “And that the artist duo hasn’t spoken a word in months. People assures that the singer has been working on new songs for six months and that neither Braun nor his company SB “were present at a single recording session”.
Justin Bieber and Scooter Braun meet in Florida on August 5, 2010. Matt Stroshane (Getty Images)
Nothing is clear, but the one who seems to have left the Braun club is Ariana Grande, who started him in 2013 and left him for a few months in 2016. The Florida girl has been working more as an actress for months. He shoots Wicked, that as a singer: His last song is from October 2020. Media such as Billboard or People take his farewell for granted. “He was kind, but she’s already gotten over him. [a Braun] and she’s excited about her new direction,” a source close to the artist told People. “Yes, the contracts are being negotiated, but it was their decision. It’s time for something new.
Grande follows a trend that rapper J Balvin started with his exit from SB in May and that Demi Lovato and Idina Menzel continue today. Yesterday, representatives from Carly Rae Jepsen, BabyJake and Asher Roth confirmed to AP that these artists are no longer collaborating with Braun. Lovato started dating him in 2019. “I couldn’t be happier, more inspired and more excited,” she said at the time, “Thank you for believing in me.” “I feel we are very honored and welcomed into the family,” replied Braun, with whom he has two has released successful albums; a third comes out in September, a compilation of his greatest hits in a rock version. Menzel, a Broadway star and the voice of Elsa in “Frozen,” also began dating him in 2019 but has been split from SB since January, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Scooter Braun and Ariana Grande at the AMA (American Music Awards) Gala held on November 22, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. Jeff Kravitz/AMA2015 (FilmMagic)
Braun’s career arouses a lot of curiosity and some hatred. In recent years, he has become one of pop culture’s most controversial figures due to his confrontation with Taylor Swift, who has recently become one of the most powerful stars in the artistic world, with a tour of more than 100 concerts for a year and a half, the will bring in a billion dollars. Swift, who began her career as a teenager, signed a Leonine contract at age 15, which she quit in 2018 at age 29 to leave her original company, Big Machine Records, and make the jump to Universal Music. Then Scott Borchetta, the owner of the company, also became the owner of all the artist’s masters, i.e. her songs and their copyrights, be it in the form of lyrics, recordings or videos. That is, everything that belonged to him between 2006, when he released his first album, and 2017, with his sixth. She assumed this could happen. What he never imagined is that he wouldn’t have the opportunity to buy that catalog and months later Braun would take over Big Machine for $300 million; Swift’s work accounted for half of the purchase price.
The artist’s anger and pain was immense. In a lengthy letter on the now almost forgotten Tumblr, Swift cried because Braun kept everything, “the music I wrote on the floor of my room and the videos I dreamed about that I paid for with my money.” that I’ve earned by playing.’ in bars, then clubs, then theaters, then stadiums’. “Now Scooter has taken the job of my life that I couldn’t buy. “Basically, my musical heritage is about to get into the hands of whoever wanted to dismantle it,” he said, accusing Braun of “relentless manipulative harassment for years.”
“When I put my masters in Scott’s hands, I had to assume that I might end up selling them,” he admitted. “Not even in my worst nightmares could I have imagined that Scooter would be the buyer. Every time Scott Borchetta heard his name in my mouth I cried or didn’t try. He knew what he was doing, they both knew it. To control a woman who didn’t want to have sex with him. Unlimited time. That means forever.” The whirlwind ended when, a year and a half later, Braun sold the artist’s catalog to investment group Shamrock Capital for $405 million. It had cost him 140.
Neither Swift nor her fans forgive her. The artist delivered a scathing speech at the 2019 Billboard Woman of the Decade awards, criticizing that music can be bought “like it’s real estate or shoes”. “It happened to me without my consent, advice, or consent,” he claimed, accusing Braun of being “the epitome of toxic masculinity privilege in the industry.” “People tell me, ‘But you’ve always been nice to me…'” Of course it is. “If you’re in this room, you have something you need,” he said without a trace of irony. After that, the Pennsylvania one closed the cycle, left Braun out, and decided to restore it all by re-recording those six albums in their own version, legal as of November 2020. It has three; the fourth, 1989 (his year of birth), will appear in October. It lacks the former, Taylor Swift, and the latter, Reputation. He must regain his name; He must regain his reputation.
Some fans of the artist sometimes go even further. Braun’s personal Instagram profile, which has nearly four million followers, has dozens of comments on every photo he uploads of angry Swifties attacking him. “You will have no more music to steal,” they write next to a sunset. The comments border on the excessive. A photo of his daughter from behind this summer saw some writing, “Will you steal his music too?” or “He’ll realize you’re a bad person.” He knows that hate and wants it, eh his closest circle has declared to shake off. A few months ago, he realized for the first time and in an extraordinary way that when it came to managing the purchase of Swift’s ships, he had been wrong and perhaps acted “arrogantly”.
But at Braun, silence is the constant. Hermeticism is his maxim, even now, in this wave of abandonment of those portrayed, from which there is no longer any light. The protagonists confirm nothing, their circle is closed. Braun is even allowed to joke about it. “Newsflash: I no longer represent myself”, tweetedIronically last Tuesday. Actually, that is part of the question. That Braun is no longer the manager of all these artists because he is no longer just a manager.
Breaking news… I can’t find my way around anymore
— Scott “Scooter” Braun (@scooterbraun) August 22, 2023
It all goes back to the sale of his company in April 2021 to the Korean group Hybe, which specializes in K-pop; an operation for which he pocketed just over a billion dollars. The company’s CEO left the company three months later, but it wasn’t until June this year that Braun became president of the company, which is valued at more than 11,200 million euros and has giants like the BTS Group currently on an artistic hiatus. Some duties that do not allow him to be as present in the careers of those he represents. “He left the world of performing arts years ago, that’s the story,” sources close to him tell Variety.
Braun isn’t the same as he was in 2017. He was able to organize the “One Love Manchester” benefit concert a few weeks after the attack on an Ariana Grande concert, and neither is the one who founded a school-building association founded by his brother Adam . Now a businessman divorced – from the mother of his three children, in 2021, after seven years of marriage – he owns two homes: one in the Hollywood Hills at more than 60,000 feet that will make him $65 million in a few years has cost and another in luxurious Montecito, two hours north of Los Angeles, inspired by the Alhambra and bought for $36 million from Ellen DeGeneres last year. They have swimming pools, cinemas, warehouses, terraces. The bad thing is that he no longer has time for parties. Almost no artist friends they set up.