RCA/Jive Label Group was a short-lived American

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the prod ...

group, owned by

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainmen ...

and representing the merger of the

RCA Music Group RCA Music Group was an umbrella group of labels distributed by Sony Music Entertainment that existed between March 2004 and 2009, and for a short period of time between July 2011 and October 2011 as all RCA Music Group labels were merged with RCA ...

and Jive Label Group. The umbrella group was formed in 2007 under the name BMG Label Group, was rebranded as RCA/Jive Label Group in 2009. In July 2011 it was finally dissolved into two separate labels: the

and Epic Records which took Jive subsidiaries (LaFace, Battery, etc.) until October 2011 when it retired

Jive Records Jive Records was an American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary to the Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chicago. Jive was best known for its successes with hip hop, R&B, ...

along with

Arista Records Arista Records () is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously handled by BMG Entertain ...

and

J Records J Records was an American record label owned and operated by Bertelsmann Music Group until it was transferred to Sony Music Entertainment when they acquired all of BMG’s record labels in late 2008. It was distributed through the RCA Music Gro ...

. The artists on those three labels were moved to

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also ...

History

Formation as BMG

RCA/Jive configuration began as the BMG Label Group during the last year of the

Sony BMG Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyou ...

merger. The group was officially formed in September 2007 when

Bertelsmann Music Group Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) was a division of a German media company Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Sony Corporation of America on 1 October 2008. Although it was established in 1987, the music co ...

restructured their RCA and Zomba groups into one entity bearing the BMG branding. Bob Anderson and Kevin Twitchell led the sales department for the new group, and John Fleckenstein was named senior VP of international. By early 2008, the BMG Label Group was said to consist of

, LaFace,

Arista Arista may refer to: Organizations *Arista Networks, a software defined networking company *Arista Records, an American record label, division of Sony Music **Arista Nashville, a record label specializing in country music *Arista (honor society) ...

Volcano Entertainment Volcano Entertainment (sometimes referred to as Volcano Records) was an American all-round music record label founded in 1996 which released albums by Tool, 311, Size 14, Survivor and "Weird Al" Yankovic. (The latter two were former Scotti Bros ...

, Verity, GospoCentric and Fo Yo Soul. In April 2008, Jive head Barry Weiss was promoted to chairman and CEO of the whole BMG Label Group, a position he still held since the groups

rebranding Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, invest ...

. Weiss replaced longtime music exec

Clive Davis Clive Jay Davis (born April 4, 1932) is an American record producer, A&R executive, record executive, and lawyer. He has won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer, in 2000. From 1967 to 19 ...

, who became the Chief Creative Officer. Though some interpreted this move by Sony as a way of shuffling Davis out of the company, he quickly reasserted his position as a hitmaker for Sony working with artists such as

Leona Lewis Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is a British singer, songwriter, actress and activist. Born and raised in the London Borough of Islington, she attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. Lewis achieved nationa ...

and

Jennifer Hudson Jennifer Kate Hudson (born September 12, 1981), also known by her nickname J.Hud, is an American singer, actress, and talk show host. Throughout her career, she has received various accolades for her works in recorded music, film, televisi ...

Rebranding to RCA/Jive Label Group

In August 2008, BMG sold their half of the

merger back to Sony. Since Bertelsmann retained the use of the "BMG" name, Sony renamed the BMG Label Group to RCA/Jive Label Group in early 2009, while at the same time, the Zomba Label Group officially began the process of rebranding to Jive Label Group. During 2009, branding for both Zomba Label Group and Jive Label Group linked to the same website while RCA/Jive seemed to eschew the Zomba name, suggesting that the branding was in process during this time. By early 2010, the Zomba site was completely reworked as the rebranding process was completed. Following the restructuring, Barry Weiss remained head of both RCA/Jive Label Group, and its constituent Jive Label Group. Weiss left the RCA/Jive Label Group in March 2011.

Dissolution

In mid-2011,

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainmen ...

split RCA/Jive Label Group. Staff and artists associated with Jive were moved to a restructured Epic Records which is aimed to focus on (mostly) urban music. RCA Music Group remained on its own, and even took on some of the non-urban artist from Jive, such as notable pop superstar

Britney Spears Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the "Princess of Pop", she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After appearing in stage productio ...

. L.A. Reid became Chairman and CEO of Epic Records and Peter Edge became Chairman and CEO of RCA Music Group.

Structure

Though the RCA/Jive Label Group was often mentioned in press releases, and the entity often appeared as a

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

and phonograph rights holder on actual releases (this changed recently as of 2010, with each individual label being credited as itself on phonograph rights), it had a less public presence and no known website. Instead, both the RCA Music Group and the Jive Label Group operate as standalone units, but shared back-office functions and reported to CEO Barry Weiss. RCA/Jive consisted of several

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the f ...

record labels A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

, which originally formed part of BMG before being absorbed into Sony's operations.

RCA Music Group

RCA Music Group was created by BMG in March 2004 shortly after the formation of Zomba Label Group. It became a part of the BMG Label Group along with Zomba, and remained unscathed after the rebranding. The group continued its operations following the dissolution of its parent group in 2011. During the existence of the RCA/Jive Label Group, the RCA Music Group consisted of the following labels: *

* Phonogenic Records *

* The Inc Records

Jive Label Group

Jive Label Group is a music group which formed half of the RCA/Jive Label Group, a division of

. Jive Label Group was founded in 2004 as Zomba Label Group by

BMG BMG may refer to: Organizations * Music publishing companies: ** Bertelsmann Music Group, a 1987–2008 division of Bertelsmann that was purchased by Sony on October 1, 2008 *** Sony BMG, a 2004–2008 joint venture of Bertelsmann and Sony that wa ...

, their parent company at the time. In January 2009. BMG sold their half of the

merger to Sony and Zomba Label Group was rebranded to the current Jive Label Group. During the existence of the RCA/Jive Label Group, the Jive Label Group consisted of the following labels: * Battery Records *

LaFace Records LaFace Records was an American record label based in Atlanta, Georgia, that operated as a unit of Sony Music Entertainment from 2008 to 2011 and was historically a part of Bertelsmann Music Group from 1989 to 2004. It was most active and achiev ...

* So So Def Recordings * Verity Gospel Music Group ** GospoCentric Records ** Verity Records **Fo Yo Soul **Quiet Water Entertainment *

History

In late 2002, Zomba completed a US$2.74 billion transaction that required

to purchase the remaining shares of the Zomba Group of Companies. When BMG began their integration of Zomba labels into their operations, they created the Zomba Label Group in early 2004. Initially the group consisted of LaFace, Volcano, Silvertone and Jive, though later expanded to include other labels. In 2005, Zomba Label Group created a gospel division called Zomba Gospel to collate their gospel interests at the time. The group primarily consisted of GospoCentric Records and Verity Records, but also included some artist-owned imprints. After being shuffled under Sony in late 2008, the Zomba Label Group began rebranding to the Jive Label Group. Additionally, Zomba Gospel was rebranded as the Verity Gospel Music Group. In mid-2011, Jive Label Group was separated from the RCA Music Group and joined Epic Records under the newly formed Epic Label Group. Because of the stylistic focus of the new group (largely urban music), some of Jive's non-urban artists, such as Britney Spears, stayed with RCA Records.

Artists

List of RCA Records artists This is an incomplete list of recording artists signed with RCA Records, including those whose material bears the RCA Victor brand. All acts are listed alphabetically by their first name or (ignoring the words "A", "An", and "The") group name. T ...

Discography

:''The record labels under RCA/Jive have been releasing material since before the entity's existence. For detailed discographies of those labels, please visit their respective pages. For a list of releases which contain RCA/Jive as the copyright holder, see: RCA/Jive Label Group discography.''

Personnel

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rca Jive Label Group American record labels Record labels established in 2007 Sony Music

History

Formation as BMG

Rebranding to RCA/Jive Label Group

Dissolution

Structure

RCA Music Group

Jive Label Group

History

Artists

Discography

Personnel

See also

References