Label Description Jive Records was an American record label under the RCA Music Group formed in 1981 by Zomba Records. Formerly headquartered in New York City, the label was best known for a string of successes with hip hop artists in the 1980s, and also in teen pop and boy bands during the 1990s and the early 2000s.
Jive Records operated as an independently managed label until 2003, when Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) acquired the remainder of its parent company Zomba for US $2.74 billion, which at the time was the largest-ever acquisition of an independent label with major-label distribution. JIVE's best-selling artists worldwide were the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears.
Today, the Jive brand is being exclusively used under the Sony Music France division under the name JIVE Epic France.