Scooter Braun has just posted pictures and videos on Instagram. He’s living his best life, jet skiing and scuba diving on vacation, drinking glasses of wine outdoors in romantic settings, and so on.
But his position in the music business is in question. Today it was announced that Scooter was stepping down from K Pop business HYBE which handles acts like BTS.
Five years ago, Scooter merged his Ithaca Holdings into HYBE and became wildly rich. His management clients like Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, and Demi Lovato all left him.
Then he helped buy Taylor Swift’s master recordings out from underneath her, and sold them to a finance company. Swift re-recorded all her albums and made the originals worthless. Now she’s bought them back at much less of a price.
Justin Bieber’s career is paralyzed. He’s in mental and financial peril after working as Braun’s golden goose and establishing his career. Bieber is a Lost Boy, a manchild with a rich wife and a baby and no recordings. He sold his catalog at a very young age, as well. He doesn’t tour.
Meantime, Braun posts those pictures and videos of living the good life. Mazel tov! It’s a happy ending. Scooter remains a large shareholder in HYBE, says The Hollywood Reporter, whatever that means. So far this year the once mighty BTS has sold 300K albums, almost all from streaming.
