We all know Justin Beiber as one of the biggest pop sensations and child star success stories of all time, however, Beiber’s rise to stardom wasn’t conventional for the time and highlighted a changing of the guard in how talent was scouted in the digital era.
If you’re a fan of Beiber you’ll be aware of his online roots, however, for those who don’t fall in the Belieber category, the musician was discovered on YouTube where his singing ability wound up seeing him flown to Los Angeles to meet with producers and other artists that would inevitably put him on and jumpstart his career.
You may however not be familiar with who discovered Beiber given he doesn’t command the stardom that the musician does, however, he is still as big a key to Beiber’s success as anybody.
Who Discovered Justin Beiber?
The man who ultimately opened the door to Beiber’s massive success was record executive Scott Samuel “Scooter” Braun.
Braun had found a video of Beiber which had been posted to YouTube of the star performing a song by Ne-Yo. Impressed by his musical talent, Braun contacted Beiber’s mother to organize for the pair to come out to Atlanta from Canada so that Beiber could work on his music career.
From then, Braun pitched the young musician to a pair of high profile artists with Usher ultimately being the one to show interest resulting in Beiber signing a deal with one of Usher’s mentors L.A. Reid, to sign with Island Def Jam record label and the rest is history.
While Braun’s rise hasn’t been near as publicized as Beibers, finding this young star online would prove to be a pivotal point in Braun’s career and largely dictate the trajectory of things to come.