Barry Weiss

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.