The return of L.A. Reid to the record biz after a year away is like a big puzzle coming together.
First one report said he’d put together $75 million in backing. Then another said that former J Records chief under Clive Davis, Charles Goldstuck, was joining him.
I can tell you the new company has an old name– Hitco– after Reid’s former music publishing company. Hitco Entertainment is an open secret, with its own website already up. Goldstuck also has a a new bio page for his website in which he id’s himself as the head of Hitco.
Now I can also tell you that Reid and Goldstuck have likely made a distribution deal with Warner Music’s new head, the very brilliant Tom Corson. This is a smart move. Corson ran RCA Records and before that was part of the Arista and J Records teams with Goldstuck and Reid, during and after Clive Davis’s reign. In a sense they are all Clive’s guys. And now they’re going to be together.
Yes, L.A. disappeared just less than a year ago after some early or pre #TimesUp/#MeToo stuff at Epic/Sony. But you know, the nature of the record biz is such that a hit record takes precedence over problems in human resources. That’s just the way it is. Reid has an ear for hits. I wouldn’t be surprised if Republic Records’ Charlie Walk winds up there given how badly he’s been treated in this crazy new environment. He’d be the perfect marketing guy for them, and gold records would be in abundance.
Anyway, the only album Sony has right now in the top 50 is from Camilla Cabello, formerly of Fifth Harmony. Camilla and the group were L.A. Reid projects. So was DJ Khaled, another star on Epic. Also, Reid will sign likely Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez just to make noise for Hitco. (When this happens, please credit this site.)
Already, according to one report, Reid is making a smart movie hiring Kirdis Postelle– already a successful woman in the record biz– as his top executive. She was most recently already at Warner Music, and knows the lay of the land. And appointing a top female exec sends a signal that a new more enlightened chapter begins.
PS That photo was taken at the Vanity Fair Oscar party just last year, shortly before Reid left Epic. His beautiful wife, Erica, is at the far left and L.A. is at the far right. Smokey Robinson is in the middle, his wife Frances is to his left, and Janelle Monae is the woman between Smokey and L.A.
