Earlier this month, it was revealed that Casey Wasserman, the CEO of Wasserman Media Group, was named in the Epstein files due to his ties to Ghislaine Maxwell, as shown in emails released by the Department of Justice.
Wasserman Media Group began in 2002 and, over the last 24 years, has slowly expanded into what is now one of the largest talent agencies in the world. Most prominently, Wasserman Media Group Wasserman Music is a leg of the company dedicated to managing and booking some of the biggest musical names in the industry.
Recently, many artists previously under the Wasserman name have come out in opposition to Casey Wasserman and have separated themselves from the media group. The list of artists who have publicly extricated themselves from Wasserman includes Chappell Roan, Orville Peck, Dropkick Murphys, Chelsea Cutler, Best Coast frontwoman Bethany Cosentino, Wednesday, Beach Bunny, Gigi Perez, John Summut, and Hot Mulligan.
Cosentino, the first to make a statement, shared an open letter on social media expressing that “Ghislaine Maxwell is not a neutral character in a messy story—she is a convicted sex trafficker who helped facilitate the abuse of minors. I did not consent to having my name or my career tied to someone with this kind of association to exploitation.” She continued to point out:
“Artists are not interchangeable assets. We are people. Many of us are women. Many of us, myself included, are survivors. We deserve systems that let us work without asking us to compromise our values in exchange for opportunity.”
Music — art of any kind — is inextricably linked to protest, human rights, and raising the voices of those who can’t speak, and with that, it is refreshing to see so many artists use their voice to speak out against harm. However, with the call for Casey Wasserman’s removal and the chaos that the public can only assume is ablaze within the media group, many online, including artists, are expressing gratitude, concern, and appreciation for employees as their professional lives become increasingly more complex.
