It appears there is a complete end of an era between Canadian singer Justin Bieber and his former manager Scooter Braun.
As of January 4, Bieber has unfollowed Scooter on Instagram.
Braun started managing the then-13-year-old Bieber after discovering him on YouTube in 2008.
The two have been working together until their relationship became sour in 2023. The pop superstar was “actively looking at how he might extract himself from [it].”
Following a series of amendments to his deal with Braun made in 2020, Bieber was still under contract for about four more years as of August 2023. In a 2023 report, sources familiar with Bieber’s business dealings said he was focused on resolving his predicament with Braun at the time.
Braun announced his retirement from management (he maintains his role as CEO of HYBE America — the North American iteration of South Korean entertainment company HYBE) by June 2024. This came after artists including Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato and J Balvin left with SB projects.
“23 years. That’s how long I have been a music manager,” Braun wrote in a statement posted to Instagram at the time. And while he shared several highlights from his management career, he dedicated a paragraph entirely to Grande and Bieber, writing: “Justin and Ariana were both young teenagers when I began with them. Justin a 13 year old kid busking in Canada and Ariana a young actress on Nickelodeon. To see them both come up to be the legends they are today will forever be one of my greatest honors. As we change our working relationships now, I will continue to root for them with the same passion that I did at each of their humble beginnings.”
