RCA/Jive Label Group (sometimes stylized as RCA/JIVE Label Group) was 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, ...

group, 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 ...

and representing the merger of the RCA Music Group 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 RCA Music Group and

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

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

Jive Records Jive Records (later stylized as JIVE Records) was a British-American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary of the Zomba Group of Companies, Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chic ...

along with

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

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 at the end of their merger. It was distribut ...

. The artists on those three labels were moved 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 ...

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 buyout o ...

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 c ...

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,

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

, 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, investors ...

. 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 1 ...

, 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, model, and activist. Born and raised in Islington, Inner London, she later attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. Lewis achieve ...

and

Jennifer Hudson Jennifer Kate Hudson (born September 12, 1981), also known by her nickname J.Hud, is an American singer, actress, producer, and talk show host. Having received List of awards and nominations received by Jennifer Hudson, numerous accolades for ...

Rebranding to RCA/Jive Label Group

In August 2008, BMG sold their half of the

merger back to Sony. Since

Bertelsmann The Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, commonly known as Bertelsmann (), is a German privately held company, private multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, ...

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), 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 ...

split RCA/Jive Label Group. Staff and artists associated with Jive were moved to a restructured

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 has sold over 150 million records worldwide, making her one of the world's best-selling music artists. Cultural impact of Brit ...

. L.A. Reid became chairman and CEO of

and

Peter Edge Peter Edge is an English-American record executive. He is the chairman and CEO of RCA Records. Early life and education Edge was born near Coventry, England. Fueled in part by his sister's record collection – which included influential re ...

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 legal 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, ...

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 navy, 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 ...

record labels "Big Three" music 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 t ...

, 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, 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 BMG to purchase the remaining shares of the

Zomba Group of Companies Zomba may refer to: Places Hungary * Zomba, Hungary, village Malawi * Zomba, Malawi, city * Zomba District * Zomba Massif, mountain * Roman Catholic Diocese of Zomba * Zomba (meteorite), see Meteorite fall A meteorite fall, also called a ...

. 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

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