Zomba Group

Zomba Label Group
Zomba Label Group
Parent company	Sony Music Entertainment (recorded music catalog); Universal Music Publishing Group and Concord (publishing catalog);
Founded	1975 (as Zomba Corporation); London, England
Founder	Clive Calder, Ralph Simon
Status	Big part of labels dissolved, only active for Christian focused music releases.
Distributor(s)	Epic Records; RCA Records; Provident Label Group; Legacy Recordings
Genre	Various
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Location	London, England; New York City, New York, U.S.; Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Official website	zombalabelgroup.com (archived)

The Zomba Group of Companies (sometimes referred to as Zomba Music Group or just Zomba Group)^[3] was a music group and division owned by and operated under Sony Music Entertainment. The division was renamed to Jive Label Group in 2009^[4] and was placed under the RCA/Jive Label Group umbrella. In 2011, the RCA/Jive Label Group was split in half. Multiple Jive Label Group artists were moved to Epic Records while others stayed with Jive as it moved under the RCA Music Group. In October 2011 Jive Records was shut down and their artists were moved to RCA Records.^[5]

Founded independently in the mid-seventies by Clive Calder and Ralph Simon, the group has had interests in music release, distribution, production, publishing, equipment rental, recording studios, and artist management. Though the financial structure and annual revenue of Zomba during the company's independent period was only known to CEO Clive Calder (the company was registered privately offshore in the Dutch Antilles^[1]), Zomba was widely regarded as the most successful of the independent music companies.

The group is perhaps best known for its role in developing some of the most popular forms of music, such as hip-hop in the 1980s, and the teen pop/boy band phenomenon in the late 1990s through their first record label Jive, though they have also had substantial activities in both the Christian and gospel music field. Calder and Simon both served as CEOs until 1990 when Calder bought out Simon's share and ran the company himself until 2002. In 2002, BMG purchased the company and subsequently restructured the labels under the umbrella company Zomba Label Group, which was the most public face of the company. The label group served as a parent for many different labels, including Jive, Silvertone, Volcano and LaFace.

Today, the only Zomba labels still in operation are So So Def Recordings, Music for Nations, Silvertone and Christian focused music labels. The remaining labels were absorbed into RCA Records and Epic Records, as well as Legacy Recordings, Sony's division for catalogue reissues.

The company still owns the "Zomba" and "Jive" trademarks as of 2018 through a Swiss company called Zomba Corporation.

^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference White1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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^ The largest variation of this name is found in Zomba ads (example in Billboard from 1996), however, trade magazines and other sources use either of the three names.
^ "Jive Label Group Artist Grammy Nominations". Archived from the original on 15 November 2008. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
^ Halperin, Shirley (7 October 2011). "RCA Execs Confirm Jive and Arista Labels Shut Down". The Hollywood Reporter.

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[3] The largest variation of this name is found in Zomba ads (example in Billboard from 1996), however, trade magazines and other sources use either of the three names.

[4] "Jive Label Group Artist Grammy Nominations". Archived from the original on 15 November 2008. Retrieved 10 December 2009.

[5] Halperin, Shirley (7 October 2011). "RCA Execs Confirm Jive and Arista Labels Shut Down". The Hollywood Reporter.

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