‘He was broke’: The messy ‘money troubles’ that forced Justin Bieber to sell all his music

After reports claimed that Justin Bieber’s Coachella show, where he played all his old songs through YouTube, was because he sold his entire music catalogue and is no longer allowed to perform them live, here’s a look back at all the messy money allegations that have plagued him for years.

The Sorry singer sold all the music he released before 31st September 2021 to a company called Hipgnosis Songs Capital for a whopping $200 million in December 2022, which included the rights to 290 of his songs and his share in the original master recordings.

It wasn’t until three years later, in 2025, that reports claimed Bieber made the decision to sell his music because he was skint. It all started when TMZ released a documentary called TMZ Investigates: What Happened to Justin Bieber? which claimed the singer earned $500 million to $1 billion during his career, but “had to sell his music catalogue because he was broke”.

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The Hollywood Reporter then alleged that he owed $20 million to tour promoter AEG after cancelling his 2022 Justice World Tour, as they gave him a $40 million advance, which “triggered a series of financial consequences that are still plaguing the artist today”. The tour was supposed to start in 2020 but was delayed due to the pandemic. It was then delayed again in 2022 after Bieber was diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, and he cancelled the whole thing in March 2023.

Scooter Braun’s company Hybe allegedly stepped in to clear the debt, with Bieber agreeing to pay him back over the next 10 years. But things took an even worse turn when Hybe did a separate investigation and found that the singer owed Braun another $9 million personally because he was underpaid as his manager, on top of the $24 million he owed Hybe.

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TMZ also alleged that Bieber was living a very expensive lifestyle, flying on expensive jets and paying for multiple mega-mansions in cash. “I was on a call with multiple people – Justin’s side acknowledges that in 2022, he was on the verge of… the words were ‘financial collapse’,” TMZ’s executive producer Harvey Levin claimed.

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However, a rep for Bieber denied all the allegations, telling Us Weekly in April 2025: “This is just clickbait stupidity based on unnamed — and clearly ill-informed — ‘sources,’ disappointed that they no longer work with Justin. As Justin forges his own way forward, these unnecessary stories and inaccurate assumptions will continue. But they won’t deter him from staying committed to following the right path.”

In another statement to The Hollywood Reporter, a rep said: “Any source that is trying to sell you a story about alleged financial distress… either doesn’t understand the entertainment industry or, more likely, is trying to paint an unflattering portrait of Justin, which bears no resemblance to reality.” Interesting.

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