Barry Weiss has led the US division of Jive Records, which was a
British label with South African roots, since it left RCA Records and
moved to its parent company, BMG Distribution, in 1991. When BMG
purchased Jive Records from founder
Clive Calder in 2002, Jive Records
relocated to the USA, and Weiss's duties expanded to include Jive
Records' worldwide operations.
In 2003, BMG restructured its divisions, and the Zomba Label Group was
formed, taking its name from Jive Records' former parent company that
was also included in the purchase. In addition to Zomba's other labels,
which include Silvertone, Battery, Volcano, and Verity, two labels
formerly distributed by Arista, another BMG subsidiary, were then
placed under the aegis of Zomba: LaFace Records, which BMG had
purchased from founders
L.A. Reid and
Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds;
and
Jermaine Dupri's So So Def Records, which had joined BMG after leaving
Sony Music (SME) and then left Zomba for Virgin/EMI soon after the
restructuring. The Zomba Label Group, led by Weiss, survived unscathed
when BMG merged with SME in 2004, creating the behemoth Sony BMG Music
Entertainment.