Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake's Label Shut Down—What Will Happen to Their Music?

New RCA CEO officially shutters Arista, Jive and J Records; their artists to move to single umbrella label

By Marianne Garvey Oct 07, 2011 2:46 PMTags
Usher, Pink, Justin Timberlake, Britney SpearsWireImage (3)

Whitney Houston, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Pink, Chris Brown and many American Idol alums are suddenly homeless.

RCA Records has shut down a trio of its labels, Arista, Jive and J Records, according to the Hollywood Reporter, which served as the label HQ for several A-list artists.

And while most are relocating, there has been one notable casualty.

Former American Idol champ Lee DeWyze has been dumped.

However, most of the big-name artists will move to RCA, according to company CEO Peter Edge. Aside from those listed above, Jive released music by the likes of the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, R. Kelly and "Weird Al" Yankovic. Arista was home to Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow, Jennifer Hudson and Dido. J Records hosted Alicia Keys, Fantasia, Leona Lewis and Pitbull.

"The path we've taken is to refresh RCA, so we're going to retire those brands," RCA COO Tim Corson tells the Reporter. "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 on 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. Frankly, they're the brand. We're defined by our artists."

The closures follow company-wide layoffs for RCA, which falls under the Sony Music umbrella and is the second oldest label in the U.S. behind Columbia.