How Justin Bieber Really Lost So Much Of His Money

In late 2022, Justin Bieber sold his music catalog for the astronomical price of $200 million. One might think that this money would just be another drop in the deep bucket that's funding a lavish lifestyle for the pop sensation. But the untold truth about Bieber is that he apparently only sold his library of hit songs because he was flat broke at the time. Sources told TMZ, which recently came out with a new Hulu documentary on Bieber, that the "Baby" singer was teetering on "financial collapse" just a few years ago. This, they say, led to his decision to sell his catalog. But this begs the question: Just how did Bieber lose so much of his money?

While it's difficult to say for sure how much Bieber is really worth, TMZ claims that he made anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion during the peak of his successful music career. The outlet's May 15 report regarding Bieber's decision to sell his catalog didn't go into too much detail regarding how his bank account took such a beating leading up to the end of 2022, simply implying that the pop star wasn't the best at managing his finances. However, a separate TMZ report published just one day earlier sheds more light on Bieber's financial situation, revealing that in addition to allegedly "blowing through" his fortune, the "Never Say Never" artist is several million dollars in debt to former manager Scooter Braun and Braun's company, Hybe. And it all stems from Bieber's decision to cut his 2022 world tour short due to health concerns.

According to TMZ's report, Justin Bieber had received a $40 million advance ahead of his 2022 world tour. After ending the tour early, though, Bieber was ordered to pay $24 million back to the concert promoter. Supposedly, since Bieber's financial situation had already taken a turn for the worse by that point, Hybe stepped in to pay the promoter back itself, with Bieber agreeing to incrementally reimburse Scooter Braun's company over the course of 10 years. However, given his aforementioned money troubles, Bieber allegedly only made one payment.

TMZ says things got even messier when Bieber's business manager alleged that Braun, Bieber's former manager, had been overpaid millions in commissions. Hybe then reportedly conducted an internal audit, which found that Braun had actually been underpaid, and that Bieber owed him an additional $1 million. Braun apparently forgave this portion of Bieber's debt, though members of the pop star's camp speaking to TMZ wrote the whole thing off as a PR stunt. Things went from bad to worse for Bieber when Hybe hired a third-party firm to run the numbers again, with a second audit finding that Bieber actually owed Braun close to $9 million, on top of the $24 million he owed Hybe itself.

All that in mind, it's no wonder Bieber saw selling his music catalog as his only way out in late 2022. Interestingly, TMZ reported that Braun had actually told Bieber not to sell at such a young age — or to at least wait until early 2023 so he could get a tax break.