Justin Bieber was reportedly on the verge of financial collapse when he sold his music catalog for $200M two and a half years ago amid new details of his split from his ex-manager.
The 31-year-old pop star – who recently boasted about drug use in a shameless post – made somewhere between $500million and $1billion but blew it all and was in rough financial shape before selling to Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs Capital according to TMZ on Thursday.
Sources for Justin claimed he was on the verge of ‘financial collapse’ back in 2022 to the point that he had to sell the rights to his music at the end of the year.
Insiders also allege that his manager Scooter Braun had tried to tell him it was a bad idea to sell so early in his career or at least wait until January 2023 in order to get a tax break but Justin did not want to wait to he ended up selling December 2022.
DailyMail.com has reached out to representatives for Bieber and they refused to comment.
Justin remains the youngest artist to ever has sold his catalog and the publication reports that being in dire financial straights had a lot to do with the decision.
He shot to fame as a 15-year-old with the release of 2010 single, Baby.
The A-lister is said to have a net worth of $300million according to Celebrity Net Worth and by comparison his wife Hailey Bieber is worth $200million.
It is interesting to note that last month it was reported that Hailey is considering selling her skincare brand Rhode for $1 billion – after launching the company nearly three years earlier in June 2022.
The model, 28 – who has been embroiled in fan concern over her marriage to singer Justin Bieber – offers both skincare and limited makeup products through the line, such as blush and peptide lip treatment.
The star has hired both J.P. Morgan and global investment bank Moelis to assist her in finding potential deal options at $1 billion in value, sources told WWD last month.
Since its launch, Rhode sales have been estimated to be around $200 million. But when it comes to a buyer, a sale might be difficult due to the brand being only online – despite talks of the company partnering with a retailer in the future.
One insider stated, ‘They’re too risk-averse, particularly in this environment. The market is just too uncertain to write that big of a check.’
According to the outlet, some buyers are wary of acquiring a brand that is associated with one celebrity and only one retailer.
Other similar brands have also not made any major deals such as Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty, Makeup by Mario and Merit by Katherine Power.
An industry source told WWD that it was due to a trailing M&A market as well as additional economic pressures.
‘Nobody paid $1 billion for Rare Beauty, nobody paid $1 billion for Makeup by Mario. Why would they pay that for Rhode? It doesn’t even have distribution.’
Another insider explained that companies such as Rhode offer ‘too much risk’ for potential buyers due to being ‘too young.’
They stated, ‘The brand has approached the scale where the universe of potential buyers is getting smaller and smaller.
‘And [Makeup by Mario, Rare Beauty and Rhode] are too young, too big, too dependent on their founders – there’s too much risk. The buyers that are relevant are exactly the buyers that wouldn’t touch this.’
This comes days after shock claims have emerged about Bieber‘s split from his former manager Scooter Braun, who has famously feuded with Taylor Swift.
Scooter spent years as one of the best known music managers in showbiz, shepherding such artists as Justin, Demi Lovato and Ariana Grande.
He announced his retirement from the profession in June 2024, one day after he and Justin ended their business relationship.
Now, an upcoming documentary has unearthed explosive allegations surrounding Justin’s past with Scooter, who helped discover him.
An external audit commissioned by Scooter’s company allegedly calculated after a six-month investigation that Justin owes him over $8 million, TMZ reports.
The fracas is supposedly connected to Justin’s decision to suspend his tumultuous Justice tour in 2022 when he still had 70 dates left on the schedule.
DailyMail.com has contacted Justin and Scooter’s representatives for comment.
When he announced he was ending the tour early, Justin made note of the fact that his face had infamously been partly paralyzed by Ramsay-Hunt syndrome not long before, explaining that he needed to ‘make my health the priority right now.’
However, insiders now tell TMZ the tour promoter AEG had given him a $40 million advance, of which he owed them $24 million back because of the cancelation.’
Scooter’s company Hybe America is said to have covered the amount, and Justin supposedly agreed to reimburse the firm in instalments over the following decade – only to allegedly stop after one payment,’ per the report.
While insiders in Scooter’s camp say Justin’s team claimed the singer was short of the money, sources in Justin’s camp tell a different story, according to the outlet.
The Justin insiders told TMZ his then-business manager Lou Taylor deduced after looking through documents that he had overpaid Scooter $26 million in commission.
Lou’s bombshell was followed by an internal audit by Hybe, determining that Justin had in fact paid Scooter $1 million less than the manager was owed – an amount that Scooter reportedly elected to waive, according to the report.
Justin’s team, on the other hand, is said to have regarded Hybe’s internal audit as a crooked means for the company to serve its own interests, TMZ claims.
Hybe allegedly enlisted the outside auditor Pricewaterhouse, aka PWC, to perform an independent investigation that lasted six months and produced a report this April stating Justin owes Scooter approximately $8,806,000, via TMZ.
While not rubbishing the PWC audit, sources in Justin’s camp told the website the singer’s team has conducted its own audit, the results of which it did not divulge.
The story will be revealed in full in just a few hours when the new documentary, TMZ Investigates: What Happened To Justin Bieber? airs on Fox.
The claims come shortly after Justin shared a carousel of bizarre clips in a since-deleted Instagram post where he talked about a variety of topics such as God, fishing and loyalty on Tuesday.
The Peaches hitmaker, 31 – who recently sparked outrage after his ‘vile’ Mother’s Day outburst – filmed the assortment of selfie videos inside what appeared to be a plane and added a warped filter over his face.
In a few short reels, the star reflected on his time living in Alaska when he was child for around ‘four to five years.’
He recalled to his followers how he would go fishing and shared that he ‘caught a couple.’
Bieber also talked about how God ‘has a plan’ and stated, ‘You’ve been hurt. You’ve been afraid. You have been shut down. But let me tell you a little something.
‘G-O-D. Our boy Jesus, he’s got a plan and he works all things together for Gucci. Gucci is what we mean, when we mean good.’
In more reels in the post, Justin then shared his feelings towards loyalty and expressed, ‘I’m always there for the people that need me. ‘Cause that’s just the kind of guy I am.’
He also stated that he is willing to ‘sacrifice the bones in his body’ before talking about both honor and integrity.
‘Now, those two truths – they lead me with this. They lead me with purpose, and they lead me with the desire to please…’
The post came shortly after Justin unveiled an outrageous phone case that he has designed for his new fashion brand SKYLRK – but jokingly shared that he needs his wife Hailey’s approval first.
He also jumped to his Instagram page to give his fans a glimpse at a marijuana joint-holding phone case.
However, the design is patented by Hailey – who first dropped the special case for her skincare company Rhode last year in February.
The case has a slim pocket on the back to hold her Peptide Lip Treatment, but Justin created his own version to specifically carry joints in the back.
In the caption of the post, the singer penned: ‘@haileybieber as we know innovated something that has now become a staple in culture with her @rhode peptide lip phone case.’
He explained, ‘Turns out she has this tech pattened so if I want to make this case I’ll have to pay her a fee. If she even approves me to make this lmfao.’
Hailey jumped to the comment section to offer her response and simply typed out, ‘I’ll think about it!’
A separate carousel of snaps showed a different version of his design in the color white and he once again begged his wife give him the okay to proceed with the phone case.
‘Workin on the moldingggggggggggggg please approve this idea @haileybieber lmfao,’ Justin wrote.
He then uploaded a picture of the SKYLRK phone case without the tiny slot on the back.
The star penned, ‘First sample of a case option without the joint or blunt holder incase Hailey doesn’t approve it.’
Justin has taken to social media this year to share posts of himself while smoking – with some snaps showing the star using a bong.
He has also previously uploaded a video of himself smoking what appeared to be a joint.
Back in April 2024, Rhode’s Chief Brand Officer Lauren Ratner discussed working alongside Hailey and how they came up with the one-of-a-kind phone case.
‘We saw an opportunity to create a solution for a daily need. Our customer won’t go anywhere without their Peptide Lip Treatment, but it can be annoying to dig through your bag to find it or realize you left it at home,’ she told Vogue.
‘Since everyone has a phone glued to their hands, it was a natural fit to combine the two. The Lip Case is a product that marries both needs together in its simplicity.’
While Hailey has been involved with her Rhode business venture since the company’s official launch in June 2022 – her husband Justin has been working on his new fashion brand SKYLRK since 2023, per GQ.
In recent months, the performer has been sharing glimpses at possible products – such as hoodies and shoes.
It comes just days after the singer posted a Mother’s Day tribute to Hailey over the past weekend.
He uploaded snaps of the model as they spent quality time with each other along with their baby boy Jack Blues.
‘Best mommy day gurlie,’ the Baby hitmaker typed out in the caption.
The singer also surprised the beauty with a mariachi band to serenade her as they enjoyed an outdoor dinner together.
However, he had also shared a note on Instagram which was later slammed by fans as ‘vile.’
The note – which is no longer visible on his main profile – read: ‘Love u moms but mothers day sucks a**.’
Social media users quickly shared their thoughts on the message, with some speculating he was referencing to wife Hailey.
One penned on X, ‘Justin Bieber posting “mother’s day sucks a**” as his wife celebrates her first one is so… vile to me.’
Another wrote, ‘Yeah I’m not surprised he’s not taking to the family life like everyone was so excited about when they first shared the news. He’s been in dire need of therapy, not a baby.’
Others came to his defense, and instead believed the note had nothing to do with the model but the singer’s own mother.
‘Justin has a complicated relationship with Mother’s Day as do a lot of people. He loves Hailey – that wasn’t directed towards her,’ a fan shared.
‘It has nothing to do with his wife, Mother’s Day is very triggering to those who grew up with narcissistic parental [figures], or parents who were more like children per se.’
One added, ‘This also screams how he feels about his mom but hey that’s a conversation ya not ready to talk about.’
The Mother’s Day celebration came shortly after Hailey uploaded a cryptic message to her Instagram stories after Justin admitted to being ‘just an average flawed guy.’
She shared an animation with a red button that had ‘loving you forever button’ written on top. Underneath, a green frog pressed the button with ‘me’ added over the cute drawing.
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