I think it’s safe to say that everyone grew up with CD’s from stars like Britney Spears, Usher, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston and many others produced through record labels Jive and Arista. But the two labels are officially closed for business, according to The Hollywood Reporter. RCA Records CEO Peter Edge and COO tom Corson had an interview with The Hollywood Reporter about why they decided to “retire those brands.”
“The path we’ve taken is to refresh RCA, so we’re going to retire those brands,” Corson said about the ending of the bands, which also includes J Records. “There may be a reason down the line to bring them back, but its a clean slate here.”
“The concept is that there is value in branding RCA and not having it confused or diluted by other labels,” he said. “The artists have all been supportive. We didn’t make this move without consulting our artists, and we haven’t had any push-back.” He also said that the artists are the brand and they define RCA Records.
You can read more of the interview here, but this is yet another goodbye in a long list of goodbyes to things that defined my life. First “The Price is Right” getting a new host, the loss of “All My Children” and now the demise of Jive and Arista? What next?
