Three titans of the music industry suffered a fatal blow today. Jive, Arista and J Records have been shuttered by their parent company, RCA, reports the Hollywood Reporter. The move was the decision of RCA chief executive Peter Edge, who plans to veer the company away from the traditional distribution model and more towards digital sales. 

"My vision for RCA is to be more of a music company," he says. "You have to reinvent, and that's what we're doing."

Edge's second-in-command, Tom Corson, elaborates: "I was at J when it started, Jive's a wonderful moniker, and Arista speaks for itself. They're all great, historic labels. But our goal is to refresh and rebrand RCA." 

All of the artists previously signed to the three axed labels have joined RCA, including Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Ke$ha, Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys and Pitbull.

(Photo: Ethan Miller/GettyImages)