RCA Records shuts down J Records, Jive & Arista

RCA Records has officially shuttered down historic labels Arista and Jive labels Arista, Jive and J Records. This doesn’t mean that numerous artists will be labeled free agents as it is said all artists will now fall under the RCA Records banner.

Spearheaded by artists like Alicia Keys and Whitney Houston, J Records was launched by Clive Davis in 2000 whereas Jive Records was run by Barry Weiss for nearly 20 years, and was home to multi-platinum pop stars Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake after playing an important role in the rap game in the ’90s with artists like A Tribe Called Quest, Boogie Down Productions, Too $hort, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, and Aaliyah. Arista was founded in 1974 also by Davis, who signed Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin and Barry Manilow to the label. In recent years, it saw releases by Usher and Pink.

While it might appear that low value was the reason of shutting these labels down, RCA Records CEO Peter Edge and president and COO Tom Corson, insist that the opposite is the case.

“The path we’ve taken is to refresh RCA, so we’re going to retire those brands. There may be a reason down the line to bring them back, but it’s a clean slate here. The concept is that there is value in branding RCA and not having it confused or diluted by other labels,” says Corson. “The artists have all been supportive. We didn’t make this move without consulting our artists, and we haven’t had any push-back. Frankly, they’re the brand. We’re defined by our artists.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter