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 Records.^[1]

RCA Music Group
Parent company	Sony Music Entertainment
Founded	March 2004; 20 years ago (March 2004)
Founder	Emile Berliner, Eldridge R. Johnson
Defunct	2011
Status	Defunct
Distributor(s)	Sony Music Entertainment
Genre	Various
Country of origin	United States
Location	New York, N.Y.
Official website	http://www.rcarecords.com

History

Inception

RCA Music Group was created by BMG in March 2004 shortly after the formation of Zomba Label Group.^[2] It became a part of the BMG Label Group along with Zomba. In 2008, BMG sold their half of the Sony BMG merger back to Sony, but retained the use of the BMG name.^[3] Thus, in early 2009, the BMG Label Group was rebranded to the RCA/Jive Label Group, half of which was the RCA Music Group. Zomba was also rebranded to become the Jive Label Group.^[4][5][6]

2011 Restructuring

In mid-2011, Sony announced that they were again restructuring RCA/JIVE Label Group. The JIVE side split, and LA Reid was hired to head Epic Records, which was restructured to focus on urban music. JIVE Records was moved under RCA Music Group, minus those artists who were moved to Epic.^[7] Some of JIVE's urban artists such as Usher moved to RCA, while other JIVE pop artists, including Britney Spears and Pink, stayed under JIVE as the label moved under the RCA Music Group.^[8][9] Peter Edge is CEO of the company.^[10] The company was expected to start releasing all of its recordings under RCA Records.^[11] Arista Records, J Records and JIVE Records have been shut down in October 2011 with all of their artists moving to RCA.^[1][12] In August 2011, RCA laid off 20 members of its staff.^[13]

Labels

• RCA Records
• Arista Records
• LaFace Records
• J Records
• Jive Records

Leadership

• Peter Edge: Chairman & CEO
• Tom Corson: President & COO

See also

• RCA/JIVE Label Group
• Epic Records
• Columbia Records

References

1. "RCA's Peter Edge, Tom Corson on the Shuttering of JIVE, J and Arista". Billboard.biz. 7 October 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
2. "Big changes for BMG North America". TourDates.co.uk. 25 March 2004. Retrieved 12 December 2009.
3. Hefflinger, Mark (5 August 2008). "Bertelsmann Sells Stake in Sony BMG for $1.2 Billion". DMWMedia.com. Digital Media Wire, Inc. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
4. Gallo, Phil (14 January 2009). "Keith Naftaly joins RCA/JIVE". Variety. Reed Business Information. Retrieved 12 December 2009.
5. Billboard Staff (1 June 2009). "UJA To Honor RCA/JIVE Chief Barry Weiss". Billboard.biz. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
6. "Zomba Now JIVE". Hits Daily Double. 25 January 2009.
7. "L.A. Reid to Run Restructured Epic Records". Billboard. Billboard.biz. 15 June 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
8. "Britney Spears Cuts Ties with Longtime Record Label, JIVE Records". Singersroom.com. 28 June 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
9. "L.A. Reid's First Week at Epic Has Some Staffers Feeling 'Energized'". Billboard.biz. 12 July 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
10. "Peter Edge Appointed CEO of RCA Music Group". Billboard.biz. 8 August 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
11. "RCA's New Executive Team Named Under CEO Peter Edge Amid Layoffs (Update)". Billboard.biz. 23 August 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
12. "Radio Industry News, Music Industry Updates, Arbitron Ratings, Music News and more!". FMQB. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
13. "RCA Lays Off 20 Staffers Amid Restructuring: Sources". Billboard.biz. 23 August 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2011.