Arista Records ( ) is an American
record label
"Big Three" music labels
A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...
owned by
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...
, a
subsidiary
A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...
of
Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate
Sony
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...
. The label was previously a division of
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 c ...
, the North American division of German conglomerate
Bertelsmann. Founded in November 1974 by
Clive Davis and deactivated in 2011, Arista was re-established in 2018. Along with
RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
,
Columbia Records, and
Epic Records, it is one of Sony Music's four flagship record labels.
History
Background

After being fired from
CBS Records, Clive Davis was recruited by
Alan Hirschfield, then-
CEO of
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...
, in June 1974 to be a consultant for the company's record and music operations. Shortly after his hiring by CPI, Davis became president of
Bell Records, replacing the departing
Larry Uttal.
Davis's real goal was to reorganize and revitalize
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...
's music division. With a $10 million investment by CPI, and a reorganization of the various Columbia Pictures legacy labels (Colpix, Colgems, and Bell), Davis introduced Columbia Pictures' new record division, Arista Records, in November 1974, ultimately owning 20 percent of the company.
The label was named after
Arista, New York City's public secondary school honor society (of which Davis was a member at
Erasmus Hall High School).
In early 1975, most of the artists who had been signed to Bell were let go, including
David Cassidy (who left for
RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
),
Tony Orlando and Dawn (who left for
Elektra Records
Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the ...
), and
the 5th Dimension (which departed for
ABC Records
ABC Records was an American record label founded in New York City in 1955. It originated as the main popular music label operated by the Am-Par Record Corporation. Am-Par also created the Impulse! jazz label in 1960. It acquired many labels bef ...
). Others, such as
Suzi Quatro and
Hot Chocolate, were farmed out to the Bell/Arista-distributed label,
Big Tree. Several Bell acts, such as
Barry Manilow, the
Bay City Rollers, and
Melissa Manchester continued with Arista.
The British Bell label kept that name for a couple of years before changing its name to Arista. The label was mentioned in the 1978
Nick Lowe song "They Called It Rock", in the lyric, "Arista says they love you/But the kids can't dance to this."
Arista signed the
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...
in 1976, and the group released their only Top 40 pop hit, "
Touch of Grey", on the label in 1987. In addition to
Outlaws,
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut album '' Horses'' made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fu ...
,
Eric Carmen,
Air Supply,
the Kinks,
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...
,
Alan Parsons and
Dionne Warwick
Marie Dionne Warwick ( ; born Marie Dionne Warrick; December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress, and television host. During her career, Warwick has won many awards, including six Grammy Awards. She has been inducted into the Hollywood Wa ...
, Arista signed
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Honored as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Soul", she was twice named by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine as the Roll ...
in 1980, after her long relationship with
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...
ended. The label's most significant acquisition came in 1983 when Davis signed
Whitney Houston. Houston would become Arista's biggest-selling recording act and one of the
best-selling acts in music history with sales of over 220 million records worldwide, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
).
Subsidiary imprint labels
Arista had an imprint label in the 1970s called
Arista Novus, which focused on contemporary jazz artists. It distributed two other jazz labels, Arista Freedom, which specialized in
avant-garde jazz and, until 1982,
GRP Records, which specialized in contemporary jazz and what came to be known as
smooth jazz. A country music division, Career Records, was merged into the
Arista Nashville division in 1997. Arista Austin was used in the late 1990s as a country label. Arista Texas (later Arista Latin) was used in the mid to late 1990s as a Tejano/Regional Mexican label. Additionally, Arista was the U.S. distributor of
Jive Records from 1981 until 1987. During the 1990s, Arista also distributed Logic,
Rowdy and
Heavenly Recordings.
Acquisitions, sell-offs
Looking to stave off bankruptcy, Columbia Pictures sold Arista to German-based
Ariola Records, a unit of
Bertelsmann, on July 27, 1979; the acquisition was completed on October 1 of that year. After Arista lost $12 million in 1982, Bertelsmann sold a 50% interest in the company to
RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
in 1983. In 1985, RCA and Bertelsmann merged their music operations to form RCA/Ariola International; RCA owned 75% and Bertelsmann owned the remaining 25%.
After
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston.
Over the year ...
absorbed the RCA Corporation in 1986, GE sold off various RCA assets, including all of its interest in RCA/Ariola to Bertelsmann, and it was renamed
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 c ...
, though Arista's U.S. releases would not note BMG until 1987. That year, in 1987, Arista Records formed a home video subsidiary, 6 West Home Video, in order to release home video titles on Arista Records' musical catalog, and the initial release, which served as the first title for the 6 West Home Video division was a one-hour performance on
The Grateful Dead, ''
So Far'', with an October release and a list price of $29.95.
Into the 1980s, Arista continued its success, including major UK act
Secret Affair. Over the years it acquired
Northwestside Records,
deConstruction Records,
First Avenue Records, and
Dedicated Records in the UK. In 1989, Arista entered into a joint venture with
Antonio "L.A." Reid and
Babyface in the creation of
LaFace Records, record company of
Toni Braxton,
Usher,
Outkast, and
TLC, which it acquired in 1999. In 1993, Arista also entered into a joint-venture with
Sean "Puffy" Combs to form
Bad Boy Records
Bad Boy Entertainment, doing business as Bad Boy Records, is an American independent record label. The label was founded in 1993 by rapper and record producer Sean Combs. During the mid-1990s, the label signed hip-hop and contemporary R&B, R&B a ...
. In 1997, Arista acquired
Profile Records, the home of
Run-D.M.C. and
Poor Righteous Teachers.
Milli Vanilli controversy
In 1989, Arista Records signed
Milli Vanilli, a contemporary R&B duo consisting of
Rob Pilatus and
Fab Morvan that was based in Germany. The label released its debut album, ''
Girl You Know It's True'', which was a remixed and re-edited version of ''
All or Nothing'', which had been out in Europe the previous year. The album was certified sextuple platinum in the U.S., and charted five top-ten singles, three of them reaching the number one position. In 1990,
Milli Vanilli won two
American Music Awards and a
Grammy Award for Best New Artist
The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since the 2nd Annual Grammy Awards in 1960 (except in 1967) "for a new artist who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording which establishes the public identity of that art ...
.
Carol Decker, lead singer of the band
T'Pau, was interviewed after their performance on
MTV and said that
Milli Vanilli had used a
Synclavier
The Synclavier is an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation manufactured by New England Digital Corporation of Norwich, Vermont. It was produced in various forms from the late 1970s into the ea ...
and were not singing. Later that year,
Frank Farian, producer of
Milli Vanilli, confirmed that the duo had not performed a ''single note'' on their album.
This revelation caused a huge firestorm in the music industry, as recording artists, particularly
bubblegum pop acts that heavily relied on electronic processing and
overdubbing
Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio Music track, tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto o ...
(what they referred to as "studio magic"), were now under scrutiny and subsequently forced to cut back on lip-synching to show that they were authentic.
Milli Vanilli's Grammy Award was subsequently revoked.
Clive Davis promptly released the duo from its contract and deleted the album and its masters from their catalogue—making ''Girl You Know It's True'' the largest-selling album to be deleted.
A court ruling in the U.S. allowed anyone who had bought the album to get a
refund.
In response to the scandal, Arista's position was that the company had been completely unaware of Morvan and Pilatus having not themselves recorded their album. In a post-debacle interview, Morvan defended himself for his part in the deception by saying: "
efore Milli VanilliI was working at a
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
. What would you have done?"
Reconstructing Arista and the L.A. Reid years
At the end of the year 2000, following its 25th anniversary, BMG fired Davis as president/CEO due to age restrictions. Although Davis was still one of the most successful record heads in the entire music industry, BMG had an age restriction policy.
L.A. Reid
Antonio Marquis "L.A." Reid (born June 7, 1956) is an American record executive, A&R representative, and record producer who served as president and CEO of Arista Records from 2000 to 2004, as well as chairman and CEO of the Island Def Jam Mus ...
succeeded Davis as Arista's president/CEO.
Under Reid, the label had success with newer acts such as
Avril Lavigne
Avril Ramona Lavigne ( ; ; born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She is a key musician in popularizing pop-punk music, as she paved the way for female-driven, punk-influenced pop music in the early 2000s. List of awa ...
,
Pink
Pink is a pale tint of red, the color of the Dianthus plumarius, pink flower. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, p ...
, and
Kelis
Kelis Rogers (; born August 21, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and chef. She attended Manhattan, New York's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she played saxophone and was selected for the Girls Ch ...
, but struggled with newer releases by more established acts already on the label. Reid seemed to lose focus and have many miscalculations when it came to promoting Arista's established acts such as
TLC
TLC may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Television
* ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2
* TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network
** TLC (Asia), an A ...
,
Toni Braxton,
Whitney Houston (Houston being BMG's biggest selling act out of all BMG labels), and several other acts.
Reid seemed to put more money in promoting newer acts and less money into promoting established acts. Whitney Houston's December 2002, ''
Just Whitney'', as well as her November 2003 album ''
One Wish: The Holiday Album'' failed to achieve the same success as her previous albums with Davis as head of Arista. Reid's extravagant spending, meanwhile, and lower sales of big-name established acts under his tenure, caused Arista to lose money. In two years, with Reid as CEO of Arista, Arista lost over $100 million.
After BMG and
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...
merged in 2004, Reid was fired in January of that year. Arista, always an independently managed front line label at BMG, was merged with
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 at the end of their merger. It was distribut ...
in August 2005; J Records being the label that Davis started after being fired by BMG.
The merged Arista and J record labels began operating under the newly formed
RCA Music Group—of which Davis was re-instated as CEO after the merger of BMG and Sony, thus Davis once again became in control of Arista and several other labels from the very company that previously fired him.
The Arista label continued to be used for new releases, although heavily scaled back, while its reissues are released through Sony Music's
Legacy Recordings
Legacy Recordings is an American record label that is a division of Sony Music. Formed in 1990 after Sony's acquisition of CBS Records, Legacy originally handled the archives of Sony Music-owned labels Columbia Records and Epic Records. In 2 ...
. Also, as a result of the Sony-BMG merger, Arista once again became related to
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...
, which is fully owned by the
Sony Corporation of America (through
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acquires, and distributes filmed entertainment (theatrical motion pictures, television programs, and rec ...
) – who would buy out BMG's share in 2008.
Dissolution and revival
After the Sony-BMG merger,
LaFace Records was eventually revived; the label was now fully owned by Sony-BMG and began operating as part of the
Jive Label Group.
During the summer of 2011, the RCA Music Group underwent a restructuring that saw the elimination of the Arista name later on that year, along with sister labels
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 at the end of their merger. It was distribut ...
and
Jive.
RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
started releasing all RCA Music Group releases under RCA Records.
Arista Nashville continued to operate through
Sony Music Nashville
Sony Music Nashville is the country music branch of the Sony Music, Sony Music Group.
Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Sony Music Nashville includes its three country recording labels Arista Nashville, Columbia Records#Columbia Nashville, Colu ...
and was not affected by the closing of Arista Records.
Arista Records France was founded in September 2012, making it initially the last active remnant of the label, In 2023, Sony Music France closed Arista Records France, with the existing roster transferring to other labels under Sony's ownership.
In July 2018, it was announced that Arista would be revived as a frontline label, making it now the fourth flagship record label under
Sony Music
Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...
alongside
Columbia,
RCA
RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...
, and
Epic
Epic commonly refers to:
* Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation
* Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale
Epic(s) ...
. The company hired former
Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...
president/CEO
David Massey to lead Arista. The label signed
Mike Posner
Michael Robert Henrion Posner ( ; born February 12, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer from Detroit.For Posner's full name, see He signed with J Records in 2009 and released his debut single "Cooler Than Me" the follo ...
ahead of his new album in 2025.
Arista Nashville
In 1989, Arista Records launched Arista Nashville, which specializes in
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
artists.
Alan Jackson
Alan Eugene Jackson (born October 17, 1958) is an American country music singer-songwriter. He is known for performing a style widely regarded as "neotraditional country", as well as writing many of his own songs. Jackson has recorded 21 studi ...
was the first act signed label. In 1995, Arista Nashville launched a subsidiary label known as Career Records, the roster of which at the time included
Brett James,
Tammy Graham, and
Lee Roy Parnell
Lee Roy Parnell (born December 21, 1956) is an American country music, country and blues musician. Active since 1990, he has recorded eight studio albums, and has charted more than twenty singles on the ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' Hot Cou ...
. Currently, Arista Nashville falls under the wing of Sony Music Nashville, hosting such artists as
Carrie Underwood,
Ronnie Dunn
Ronald Gene Dunn (born June 1, 1953) is an American country music singer-songwriter and record executive. Starting in 2011, Dunn has worked as a solo artist following the temporary dissolution of Brooks & Dunn. He released his Ronnie Dunn (alb ...
and
Jerrod Niemann.
In March 2023, Arista Nashville was closed, with its roster reassigned under other Sony Music labels.
Artists
See also
*
Arista Records artists
*
Arista Nashville
*
List of record labels
File:Alvinoreyguitarboogie.jpg
File:AmMusicBunk78.jpg
File:Bingola1011b.jpg
Lists of record labels cover record labels, brands or trademarks associated with marketing of music recordings and music videos. The lists are organized alphabetically, ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Record labels established in 1974
Record labels disestablished in 2011
Record labels established in 2018
Re-established companies
RCA Records Music Group
Sony subsidiaries
Sony Music
American jazz record labels
Pop record labels
Soundtrack record labels
Companies based in New York City