Photo Credit: HitCo Entertainment
Concord moves forward with its HitCo catalog purchase — but leaves the label behind.
Antonio LA Reid’s HitCo Entertainment — home to artists like Dixie D’Amelio, Jennifer Lopez, Saint Jhn, and Yella Breezy — has sold to private equity company Concord. While the deal was reported in August, it was unclear whether Concord would be absorbing the HitCo label or acquiring its music catalog. Sources close to the agreement specify that the consummation of the purchase included nearly all of the sound recording and publishing assets, with “certain exclusions” that were not detailed.
The financial terms of the acquisition by Concord are still unknown, but several executives at HitCo will remain. Among them are label president Joel Klaiman and head of A&R Jaha Johnson, who will both continue to head HitCo projects. Reports indicate that Saint Jhn’s original hit “Roses” and the massively successful Imanbek remix are included as part of the acquisition.
Although HitCo Entertainment didn’t exist in its current form until 2017, the name and entity of HitCo date back to around 1996, in the early days of LA Reid’s career. Reid played drums with Cincinatti’s the Deele before co-founding LaFace Records in 1989, which included several prolific artists such as OutKast, Pink, TLC, Toni Braxton, and Usher. Reid would later embark on a joint venture with Arista Records, the label he would later head as president and CEO.
Concord’s headquarters are based in Nashville, with additional offices in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, London, and Berlin. Concord represents close to 900,000 songs and trades across recorded music, music publishing, theatrical, and original productions. Its primary labels include Concord, Concord Jazz, Easy Eye Sound, Fantasy Records, Fearless Records, KIDZ BOP, Loma Vista Recordings, and Rounder Records.
Concord’s publishing arm owns or administers over 600,000 copyrighted musical works. Among those works are the catalogs of Phil Collins, Cyndi Lauper, John Fogerty, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Benny Blanco, Sammy Cahn, and Ryan Tedder.