Vulture

Scooter Braun has, yet again, found himself in the midst of another media frenzy.

As an avid Taylor Swift listener, enthusiast, and lover—pun very much intended—I don’t have the greatest feeling regarding Scooter Braun. 

For context, Scott “Scooter” Braun is most notably known for being a music executive and talent manager for clients like Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, and J Balvin, to name a few. But, to put it simply, most of Braun’s clients are leaving his agency.

Perhaps his most known bit of drama is that with Taylor Swift: the controversy to bring “Taylor’s Version” album re-recordings into existence. In August 2019, Swift announced that she would re-record and release all six of her previously-released albums through the publishing rights she held for being the primary songwriter on all of her songs; however, in October 2020, Braun sold all of the masters and acquisitions of Taylor’s music to Shamrock Holdings, an American private equity firm, without Swift’s approval. Essentially, this meant that Swift’s original albums didn’t technically belong to her anymore; they belonged to Braun. 

Regardless, being the iconic woman she is, Swift took this as an opportunity to regain her artistic liberties and devalue the original recordings owned by Shamrock, subsequently laughing in the face of yet another man who’s thrown her trust away. April 2021 held the release of Fearless (Taylor’s Version) through her new agency, Republic Records, followed eventually by Red (Taylor’s Version) that November, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) in July 2023, and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is now set to be released this coming October. With each release comes new “From the Vault” tracks that weren’t released on the original recordings; they’re classic to Taylor but new to everybody else.

Braun’s (failed) business with Swift led to more major success for her than he’d ever given her in the first place; however, this was only the beginning of his tarnished reputation.

After the Swift scandal, Braun took to tormenting his other famous clients, publicly ridiculing and nonconsensually sharing the personal experiences of Ariana Grande on numerous occasions. For example, following the death of Mac Miller, Grande’s boyfriend before his untimely death, Braun went on to force her back into work almost immediately, not giving her a reasonable amount of time to accept the grief she was facing, and later, at a live event which she was supposed to perform at, outright blaming her for needing time to cope after she’d lost the love of her life.

Similarly, he signed singer Madison Beer simply through deception and the anonymity of Twitter. Through Justin Bieber’s account, Braun tweeted to Beer in July 2012, “Wow, 13 years old! She can sing. Great job. #futurestar,” and attached was a link to a YouTube video that Beer had posted before. She was signed, and not long thereafter, he dropped her completely, and she lost her label. 

Not to mention, as “Call Me Maybe” singer Carly Rae Jepson’s career slowly began to fail, Braun took to social media, saying, “It falls on me. I didn’t get it done for her. Maybe I didn’t get her the right TV look at the right time. Maybe I picked the wrong single.” His taking account of Jepson’s success–and eventual lack thereof–is simply a cop-out to the most morally disrespectful degree. 

Many other people have left Braun, but some stayed with him. Demi Lovato, Idina Menzel, and Justin Bieber have reportedly left, but Tori Kelly, Dan & Shay, and Black Eyed Peas are still with SB Projects, Braun’s agency.

If we’re thinking realistically, it must be pretty embarrassing being a grown man who gets his publicity from essentially preying on young musicians by legally gagging them from speaking out against you.

Wherever Scooter Braun is and whatever he’s doing, let’s just hope that some more good music can come from such a dramatic man’s leadership.