Kris Allen Signs with Jive Records: It’s Official!
The rumors had been swirling for weeks, but now it’s official! The press release has been issued! Kris Allen has signed with Jive Records!
NEW YORK, June 8 /PRNewswire/ — It was announced today that 19 Recordings has signed Kris Allen, and his recordings have been licensed to Jive Records.”
“As exciting as the last few months have been, I’m really looking forward to what is next,” says Kris Allen. “I’m very grateful to be working with Simon Fuller and his team at 19 Entertainment, along with Barry Weiss and Jive Records on my debut album. Everyone’s been asking me what it’s going to sound like. It will be very similar to what you heard from me on the show — definitely in the pop/rock genre. I can’t wait to get started!”
Congratulations Kris! Jive Records is also the home to Season 6 Idol winner Jordin Sparks and Season 7 runner up, David Archuleta.
Jive is also home to Pop/R&B acts like Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and the Backstreet Boys.
No word yet on release dates, or who will be working with Kris on his upcoming record, although Arkansas native David Hodges, formerly of Evanescence, says he had a writing session with Kris on Friday.
Hodges has worked with other Idol contestants such as Kelly Clarkson, Daughtry, David Archuleta, and Blake Lewis. He’s also, famously the subject of Kelly’s song “Never Again”
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98 Responses to “Kris Allen Signs with Jive Records: It’s Official!”
Yeah, that language about Kris signing with 19R but licensing to Jive is very odd for an Idol winner. It’s somewhat similar to how Michael Johns’ deal was described, but I’ve never seen it worded like that with a winner/runner-up. Cook’s press release last year said “American Idol winner David Cook has been signed to 19 Recordings/RCA Records…”. No distinction about signing versus licensing.
Maybe it’s just a semantics issue, but it does make me curious (I’ve long been fascinated with the inner-workings of the Idol contracts). Perhaps the 19 machine is reacting to the changing nature of the industry and is starting to get more creative or trying to give themselves more flexibility with the contracts they sign coming off the show. It’s happening quite a bit in the film industry, where studios are working together and licensing-out distribution rights in order to hedge or distribute some of their risk.
Now I’m dying to see how the announcements about Adam and Allison’s (presumed) deals are worded…
Seriously, the answer for me is satellite radio in the car, and combination tv music channels and itunes/ipods at home. Satellite radio is only about $13 a month for the first car and about $7 for the 2nd. Well worth it, you can hear every kind of music on it, an infinite number of songs. I haven’t been able to stand regular radio in at least a decade.
Yay! Wonderful to see the confirmation.
Now let’s see what he can do with the lyrical dreck they’re probably going to saddle him with. All I’m asking for is one actually good song…too much?
Here’s something I’m wondering about the whole signing/ licensing deal…
I’ve seen on several posts (mainly by Kirsten), that the head of Jive has now taken Clive Davis’s position. Clive was the head of 19R correct? Or no?
So in light of this new development (if I’m understanding it correctly), perhaps this is how it works when idols are signed with Jive (or licensed).
BTW, I am really looking forward to Kris’s album. I plan to download his itunes pass.
Me too, especially Allison’s provided all of the Jive rumors for her are true!
This is a great question, anyone have any info about this? All I know in David Cook’s case he said he met with RCA first and liked what he heard from them and canceled his other label meetings. The way he told the story lead me to believe going with RCA was his choice. But really, I have no clue, especially if they have any negotiating power of if they can play labels off of each other.
seriously, it’s just semantics. This is the way it has always worked. There is no new development. LOL. He is listed as 19/Jive from RS to Billboard. Notice the Jive website…… he is ‘Jive Recording Artist, Kris Allen’.
I didn’t see this posted anywhere, but here is the Rollingstone.com story on Kris being signed and they gave a shout out to MJ!!
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/06/08/american-idol-winner-kris-allen-signs-with-jive-records/
Just stopping in to echo what storm45701 said:
There is nothing unusual about Kris’ signing; simple semantics is all it is. I am holding my David Cook CD right now. And, on the back, it reads: 19 Recordings Limited under exclusive license to RCA Records.
Sorry, nothing new and exciting (or Taylor-esque) here.
Storm, I agree it’s probably semantics, but why would this one be worded differently than past ones? I don’t know about BB, but I’m kinda thinking that RS got their info. from mj, esp. since they mention her in the article.
Clive was the head of the entire of RCA Music Group (Arista/J Records/RCA), not 19..Simon Fuller is the head of 19.
Not likely since last year when the David’s signed their deals Clive was already demoted and Barry Weiss took his place by then.
David Cook is LICENSED to RCA.
Daughtry is LICENSED to SONY BMG.
Kelly Clarkson is LICENSED to RCA.
Kellie Pickler is LICENSED to BNA.
Why? Because they are the PROPERTY (there, I said it!!) of 19E!!!!
Yep, that’s the contract…ownership of said artist’s creative efforts.
19E is a British company; they had to create these licensing agreements in order to secure US distribution and radio play. Think of it this way, he records for both 19E (who are upfronting the $10K or more per track it takes to record) and Jive (who are going to upfront a ton of promotion costs). Sony BMG has placed them at the label within their franchise that they think will fit.
I’m not sure why people are reading too much into this. Don’t be disturbed by the wording.
I’m finding it quite thrilling that the head of Sony BMG (the whole damn company!) placed him at his former label, Jive/Zomba.
I sure hope not. He just said he liked being described as “rock” and “pop rock” doesn’t necessarily mean “r&b flavor”. I’ll be so disappointed if he goes for an r&b sound. He didn’t do that on the show and it doesn’t seem like who he is.
just looked up my Ray LaMontagne album…. yep it’s
“2006 Stone Dwarf, LLC, under license to the RCA Music Group”.
so, it’s not just the Idols…and Ray is fully listed at RCA’s site.
Awww, thank you, that’s why I asked the question.
When you just know a little bit, it’s dangerous sometimes. This helps a great deal, thanks!
Storm, I appreciate your explanation as well! Thank you!!!! This helps too.
Oceana, I’m thinking pop/rock w/ an R&B flavor. This doesn’t mean something with vocal gymnastics however. We’ll see. Kris seems to be smart about what he wants and says he’s sticking to what he did on the show.
Ach, I don’t want it auto tuned or over produced however. Again, we’ll see.
Yep, this seems to be a good thing!!! Yay!
Since I can’t edit my last comment, I just want to point out that the thing that clued me in on storm’s post was the fact (I think) that 19E is a British company (duh) and therefore 19R must be as well, so they need to license with an American company. thank you again!!!!
Congrats to Kris! Can’t wait for the album!
Ah okay, works for me
I was just curious cause that was the first time I’d seen it worded like that. Every other press release I remember doesn’t play around w/the wording, it just said “signed with Jive/RCA/Arista”. But hey, maybe someone new is writing the PRs. Also as a Kris fan I am hypersensitive to possible bussing (see, I can be honest about that) 
Sorry for spamming, but it’s too late for me to edit above. Looks like it’s a Jive thing, just browsing through Amazon both Archie and Jordin have that “19 Recordings licensed to Zomba Group” type of language in their music’s product info. okay, tinfoil hat off!
And since I seemed to have forgotten to say it: Congrats to Kris on officially getting signed! I’ve heard he is already working with songwriters on material (“with” being the important word here!), great to hear they are getting started quickly!
Just a minor clarification (because I pick nits). Sony used to be known as Sony-BMG. It was a joint venture between the Sony Music Group (a division of the bigger Sony Company) and the Bertelsmann Music Group (a division of the bigger Bertelsmann Company). As is the way with large companies, there were several layers of management. The Sony and BMG portions of the company operated largely independently and the head of BMG portion was Clive. Rolf Schmidt-Holtz was actually the head of Sony-BMG.
Last year, Bertelsmann decided to get out of the music biz and sold out to Sony, so the company is no longer Sony-BMG and is just Sony. Rolf continues to be the CEO.
Also last year (prior to Bertelsmann selling out to Sony), Clive was replaced as the head of BMG by Barry Weiss (who had previously been the CEO of the Zomba Music Group part of BMG). So, Barry was now in charge of the labels that have a licensing agreement with 19E including such labels as RCA Records, Jive, J Records, LaFace, Arista, Volcano, Verity, Arista Nashville, RCA Nashville, BNA Records, BMG Kidz, GospoCentric and Fo Yo Soul. Barry continues to be the head of this division of Sony.
So, Clive was responsible for more than just RCA and Barry isn’t quite the head of Sony-BMG, but he certainly has a very impressive group of labels under his wing. And, yes, Barry has grown to be head of the BMG labels based on his impressive results at Jive (and later, it’s parent label group, Zomba).
lord, too many layers….. this is what consolidation does. We basically have four major labels with a bunch of divisions.
so, I wonder who pulled the rug out from under ol’ Clive?
From what I read at the NY Times, Jive/Zomba is one of the few label branches to control costs and make a profit. I can see why they wanted Weiss to oversee the whole division. Clive has always been about units, units, units, no matter the cost…..
I just hope that they treat Kris well, and give him the support that he needs, including – and especially – good material. I am glad that, like Cook and Daughtry, they are allowing him to help write his own material. I’m not sure if they allowed Hicks to do that.
19 sure did everything in their power to bury this press release and anything Kris related as soon as possible in order to continue with “The Adam Lambert Show”. I feel for this guy. He is talented and he is getting screwed over because he doesn’t make a spectacle of himself. I really feel that it would be in his best interest to go with different management. If not, it was nice knowing him.
LOL…. too true. They should have waited until later in the week. Nothing will keep them from promoting TCO, though. Clive is probably salivating. I’m just glad they’re on separate labels and obviously have separate goal points, although part of me feels like this is all a vicious plan.
^^^^
The management is who is in charge of the vast majority of promotion, though. And, they are making it painfully obvious that they have no interest in promoting him. This is a marketable guy; I don’t get it.