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Zomba Group
The Zomba Group of Companies (sometimes referred to as Zomba Music Group or just Zomba Group) was a music group and division owned by and operated under Sony Music Entertainment. The division was renamed to Jive Label Group in 2009 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.
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), 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, all the Zomba labels were absorbed into RCA Records and Epic Records, as well as Legacy Recordings, Sony's division for catalogue reissues, while Music for Nations and Silvertone are currently owned by Sony Music UK.
The company still owns the "Zomba" and "Jive" trademarks as of 2018 through a Swiss company called Zomba Corporation.
In late 1971, Clive Calder and Ralph Simon began their two-decade partnership in forming businesses in record production and promotion, music publishing, artist management and concert promotion in South Africa. Because of the market in South Africa, there was a need to branch out into various aspects of the business, instead of just focusing on one aspect of the industry. "You couldn't do just one thing. It was too small," explained David Gresham, CEO of David Gresham Record Company. "This is not a country where you have a million-seller. A No. 1 record is a 10,000 unit seller. That only pays the rent for a month or two." While almost mandatory in South Africa, this early style of music company would be adapted to other markets throughout the companies history, and would become a staple of Calder's managing legacy.
Early companies formed by Calder and Simon were Sagittarius Management and Clive Calder Productions (CCP). CCP was distributed by EMI Records South Africa who purchased the company in 1972. Although Calder has no stake in it now, it still exists as a wholly owned subsidiary of Universal Music, having acquired most of EMI in 2013, specializing in the recording, development and marketing of domestic artists. Calder's relationship with EMI began when he had been an A&R Manager at EMI South Africa for eighteen months. There he had signed some big groups for the time such as Freedom's Children and the Otis Waygood Blues Band. During this time, Calder was also a bassist in a few bands. He formed the Four Dukes and the In Crowd with EMI artist Peter Vee, whom he also produced. Calder eventually paired Lee with a young producer named Mutt Lange, who at the time had produced for David Gresham and David Gresham Records local hit "Sunday Monday Tuesday" by Jessica Jones on Gresham's Nitty Gritty Records.
The trio of Calder, Simon and Lange decided in 1974 that they had to get out of South Africa, with Simon saying, "We were politically very much opposed to the old apartheid regime". The trio pooled together what little money they had and moved to London. Having landed right in the middle of the British punk rock movement, they opted to create a publishing company; Zomba Corporation was officially registered in Switzerland in 1975, operating out of Calder's bedroom space in London. The name "Zomba" referred to the capital of African country Malawi (Lilongwe superseded Zomba as Malawi's capital in 1974).
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Zomba Group
The Zomba Group of Companies (sometimes referred to as Zomba Music Group or just Zomba Group) was a music group and division owned by and operated under Sony Music Entertainment. The division was renamed to Jive Label Group in 2009 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.
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), 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, all the Zomba labels were absorbed into RCA Records and Epic Records, as well as Legacy Recordings, Sony's division for catalogue reissues, while Music for Nations and Silvertone are currently owned by Sony Music UK.
The company still owns the "Zomba" and "Jive" trademarks as of 2018 through a Swiss company called Zomba Corporation.
In late 1971, Clive Calder and Ralph Simon began their two-decade partnership in forming businesses in record production and promotion, music publishing, artist management and concert promotion in South Africa. Because of the market in South Africa, there was a need to branch out into various aspects of the business, instead of just focusing on one aspect of the industry. "You couldn't do just one thing. It was too small," explained David Gresham, CEO of David Gresham Record Company. "This is not a country where you have a million-seller. A No. 1 record is a 10,000 unit seller. That only pays the rent for a month or two." While almost mandatory in South Africa, this early style of music company would be adapted to other markets throughout the companies history, and would become a staple of Calder's managing legacy.
Early companies formed by Calder and Simon were Sagittarius Management and Clive Calder Productions (CCP). CCP was distributed by EMI Records South Africa who purchased the company in 1972. Although Calder has no stake in it now, it still exists as a wholly owned subsidiary of Universal Music, having acquired most of EMI in 2013, specializing in the recording, development and marketing of domestic artists. Calder's relationship with EMI began when he had been an A&R Manager at EMI South Africa for eighteen months. There he had signed some big groups for the time such as Freedom's Children and the Otis Waygood Blues Band. During this time, Calder was also a bassist in a few bands. He formed the Four Dukes and the In Crowd with EMI artist Peter Vee, whom he also produced. Calder eventually paired Lee with a young producer named Mutt Lange, who at the time had produced for David Gresham and David Gresham Records local hit "Sunday Monday Tuesday" by Jessica Jones on Gresham's Nitty Gritty Records.
The trio of Calder, Simon and Lange decided in 1974 that they had to get out of South Africa, with Simon saying, "We were politically very much opposed to the old apartheid regime". The trio pooled together what little money they had and moved to London. Having landed right in the middle of the British punk rock movement, they opted to create a publishing company; Zomba Corporation was officially registered in Switzerland in 1975, operating out of Calder's bedroom space in London. The name "Zomba" referred to the capital of African country Malawi (Lilongwe superseded Zomba as Malawi's capital in 1974).