Over the last few weeks, as the drama around Wasserman Agency founder Casey Wasserman’s presence in the Epstein files and his professional future have unfolded, misinformation has spread at a rate that is rare even for the entertainment business.
Complicating matters further is the fact that reliable information can be challenging to find in this rough-and-tumble side of the industry, as nearly everyone with insight either has a dog in the fight or at least something to gain from launching or furthering one narrative or another.
With that caveat, sources with direct knowledge of the situation tell Variety that, as Wasserman has agreed to sell the agency and the media spotlight has moved to his ongoing status (for now) as chairman of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, things inside its music division have calmed down, as executives (nearly all of whom are bound by contracts) and many of the artists (who are not) take a wait-and-see approach while the company’s name change and sale move forward.
Sources say the brand change is already in motion and a new name for the agency is expected as soon as next week; however, even under optimal circumstances, the sale will take months.
While several artists have left — most notably Chappell Roan and Laufey — and several others, including Sara Bareilles, SZA and Imagine Dragons, are said to be in the process of maybe thinking about possibly leaving (hedging intentional), sources confirm that just two agents have resigned: Kiely Mosiman and Jackie Nalpant, Roan’s agents, possibly in solidarity with their artist.
The process of an artist leaving an agency is often hazy — sometimes they’ll join another agency in a certain area or territory and remain with the previous agency in others, if only for a certain time; one agent spoke of a global superstar leaving one agency, virtually unnoticed by most of the industry, until that superstar announced they had joined a different one, many months later. That haziness often breeds misinformation: Multiple sources tell Variety emphatically that Billie Eilish had already left Wasserman before allegations of Casey Wasserman’s “serial” affairs with junior employees (which he has not commented upon) emerged in 2024, although media outlets and others continue to perpetuate the narrative that she left because of those allegations.
Similarly, reports emerged last week that another big client, Imagine Dragons, had left Wasserman. However, multiple sources tell Variety that the group began speaking with other agencies, notably CAA, late last year, weeks before the latest tranche of Epstein documents was released, and those talks are ongoing, although the group has not left Wasserman (at least, as of today) and is continuing to speak with them as well.
It is also not outside the realm of possibility that artists and the two agents could return the agency when it is under new ownership and/or name.
Indeed, if the key problems — i.e. the behavior of the founder and the fact the company bears his name — are resolved, what’s the issue? That is a question that many of the artists and employees are contending with, or at least putting off until the future becomes clearer. Artists are often fiercely loyal to their agents, who in many cases were the first to spot and promote them, and many follow their agents from one company to another over years. Similarly, agents often travel together from one company to another, sometimes over decades.
While CAA and UTA were both said to be looking at acquiring Wasserman Music wholesale — and some sources said they were just looking at acquiring pieces — neither prospect appear likely at the moment; sources say a sale to a private equity firm or individual is a more realistic scenario.
Of course, the company that buyer will be acquiring has some baggage. Wasserman Music is more of a collection of factions than a unified company, many of which are agencies that the former Paradigm Music acquired on a buying spree in the years before it was acquired by Wasserman in 2021.
What followed that acquisition was a headlong rush for volume led by Wasserman himself, as he worked successfully to make the company a major player: It has more acts at Coachella this year than any other agency. But that kind of growth comes at a significant cost: The music division alone has more than 400 employees, salaries and overhead are said to be considerable, and sources say the profits on booking some of those superstars are unimpressive.
However, those factors, while formidable, are far more everyday concerns than the ones from which the Wasserman Agency is gradually — apparently — emerging.
Variety will have more on the situation as it develops.
