First Justin Bieber, then Demi Lovato, then Ariana Grande: reports of artists leaving Scooter Braun’s management stable have been piling up faster than indictments for a certain former president.
Yet unlike indictments, there is little solid information to be found on what is being positioned by some as an exodus from Braun’s SB Projects.
Lovato’s “amicable” departure has been confirmed off the record by sources from both camps.
However, Bieber’s allegedly impending departure was strenuously denied by multiple sources
(although Puck, which first reported the news, insists the story is accurate, as does at least one source Variety spoke with).
And Grande’s exit — which, if true, would be the second time she’s parted ways with him — was strenuously denied by sources close to Braun
while a rep for the singer did not respond to Variety’s requests for comment (although unnamed sources apparently confirmed the split to Billboard).
The situation has reached a strange netherworld of off-the-record confirmations and denials where one set of sources says one thing and another says the opposite,
and most likely no one is telling the whole truth. Reps are stonewalling and insiders are clamming up fast; it’s like trying to get an accurate status update on Fight Club or Voldemort.
Yet some sources tell Variety that Bieber and Grande are not leaving the company, but rather Braun is continuing to step back from day-to-day management to focus on his role as CEO of HYBE America,
the South Korean entertainment giant behind K-pop titans BTS, to which he sold Ithaca Holdings,
the parent company for his SB Projects management business, for a whopping $1.05 billion in 2021.