Republic Records

More information about Taylor Swift through Republic Records can be found on their official website.

Republic Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded in 1994 by current CEO Monte Lipman and his brother Avery Lipman, being acquired by Universal Music Group in 2000. They were eventually renamed Universal Republic Records after a reorganization in 2006, but changed their name back in 2012. As of 2021, they have over 100 artists signed under their name, including joint deals through imprints like Lava and Capitol Records. Taylor Swift is currently signed under Republic through a joint deal with Taylor Swift Productions, Inc. since 2018. Her releases include 2019's Lover, 2020's folklore and evermore, the 2021 re-recordings of Fearless and Red, 2022's Midnights, 2023's re-recordings of Speak Now and 1989, and 2024's The Tortured Poets Department.

History

According to the CEO Monte Lipman Republic Records had started in his shared apartment with his brother in New York stating:

“

My brother, Monte Lipman, and I had been working at record companies. He was in between jobs and we started putting records out as a hobby. We had a grassroots approach to the business. The first record we put out happened to work really well.

”

Both the brothers had previously worked for labels, with Republic Records initially being a hobby of theirs. At the time of the start-up in 2005, they named it "Cheese Factory", and was a subsidiary of the Greffen Records umbrella owned by UMG. KRDQ radio station was the first station to ever airplay any record of theirs with Bloodhound Gang's "Fire Water Burn". Soon after, however, they would change distribution to Universal Records under a multi-year deal with vice-chairperson Mel Lewinter in 2000.

Monte went to Universal Records to be chairperson of their group in 2001, while Avery remained as president of Republic Records. In 2006, Monte would go back to being president, but this time of Universal Motown Republic Records. This was because Universal had merged itself, including Motown Records with Republic.

Photo of Rick Rubin, a producer who was hired under the new campaign.

In 2012, they would have a full revamp of their image, similar to Spotify's. Under this, they hired many new people, including producer Rick Rubin, who has worked for Adele and Ed Sheeran among others, along with Naim McNair and Tab Nkhereanye. McNair worked with A&R, short for artists and repertoire, consulting and working for Warner Bros and Epic Records. With Rubin joining, he also brought his American Recordings label to be an imprint of Republic Records. However, the biggest thing was changing its logo, being now three stripes with their new name "Republic Records".

Continuing to expand, they would focus on movies and television briefly, including NBC's The Voice and the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack. They also signed new artists like Post Malone and The Weeknd, which brought his XO Record Label to be another imprint. 2017 was the first year they had been included in Variety's Hitmakers due to the hit Despacito and Malone.

In 2018, they would sign Taylor Swift, who worked with their imprint Big Machine Records previously for the majority of her career, following her controversy with Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta. Due to that, they became first on Billboard's Top Labels, which they had also notched three times out of the previous four years. Extending their record, that would happen in 2019 only further expanding their success ruling over the Hot 100. They also had five of the top 10 albums of the year with Ariana Grande's Thank U, Next, Swift's Lover, Malone's Beerbongs & Bentleys and Hollywood's Bleeding, and Drake's Scorpion.

2020 was the first time they would ever get the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for Swift's folklore, getting all the other three major awards previously. They also ruled the charts that year with the top three albums on January 28th with Morgan Wallen, The Weeknd, and Taylor Swift. Jim Roppo and Wendy Goldstein were also named co-presidents after being long-standing executives.

Artists

This does not include all artists, only ones of note. *'s symbolizes there is a note inside the source explaining a technicality.

Artist	Year signed	Imprint/Joint deal?
Ariana Grande	2011	✘
Drake	2009	✔Imprint Young Money
Hailee Steinfeld	2015	✘
Jessie J	2011	✔Joint deal with Lava Records
Lil Wayne	2005	✔Imprint Young Money
Nicki Minaj	2005	✔Imprint Young Money
Post Malone	2015	✘
Taylor Swift	2018	✔Joint deal with Taylor Swift Productions, Inc.
The Weeknd	2011	✔Imprint XO Records
Conan Gray	2018	✘
Black Sabbath*	2018	✔Imprint Vertigo in US/Canada only
Sofia Carson	2016	✔Joint deal with Hollywood Productions
The Cab	2014	✘
DNCE	2017	✘
Florence + The Machine	2009	✘US/Canda only
Florida Georgia Line	2014	✘Through Nashville Branch
Christina Grimmie*	2017	✘
Glass Animals	2014	✘US/Canda only
Gotye	2012	✘
(G)I-dle	2020	✘US/Canada only
Paris Hilton	2013	✔Imprint Cash Money
Paris Jackson	2020	✘
Jeremy Zucker	2020	✘
Jonas Brothers	2019	✘
John Legend	2021	✘
Julia Michaels	2016	✘
Kid Cudi	2013	✘
Lil Tecca	2019	✔Imprint Galatic Records
Lorde	2009	✘US/Canda only under imprint Lava Records
Nav	2017	✔Imprint XO Records
Of Monsters and Men	2012	✘Internationally besides Iceland
Owl City	2009	✘
Liam Payne	2016	✔Joint deal with Cpaitol Records under North America
Pop Smoke*	2019	✘
Psy	2012	✔Imprint Schoolboy Records
Snow Patrol	2018	✘
Tyga	2007	✔Imprint Young Money
Tomorrow X Together (TXT)	2019	✘
TWICE	2020	✔Joint deal with JYP Entertainment
The Score	2015	✘
Amy Winehouse*	2002	✘
Zendaya	2016	✔Joint deal with Hollywood Records

Releases

The very first release under the Republic name was by the imprint Cheese Factory Record with the EP Dingleberry Haze by Bloodhound Gang in 1994. Bloodhound would later release 5 more EPs under Republic with one full album entitled One Fierce Beer Coaster in 1996 before going to Geffen Records. Notable singles produced by Republic include Jay Sean and Lil Wayne's "Down" which was certified 6x platinum by the RIAA and "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye and Kimbra being certified 14x platinum making it diamond for 10 million. Along with that there is "Bang Bang" by Ariana Grande with 8x, "Royals" by Lorde with diamond, "The Hills" by The Weeknd with 11x platinum, "Congratulations" and "Sunflower" by Post Malone with each 11x platinum, and "God's Plan" by Drake with 11x platinum.

Prominent albums by artists signed under Republic include Amy Winehouse (2006's Back to Black); Pop Smoke (2020's Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon); Lorde (2013's Pure Heroine, 2017's Melodrama, and 2021's Solar Power); the Jonas Brothers (2019's Happiness Begins); Florence and the Machine (2015's How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful and 2018's High as Hope); Nicki Minaj (2010's Pink Friday, 2012's Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, 2014's The Pinkprint, and 2018's Queen); The Weeknd (2013's Kiss Land, 2015's Beauty Behind the Madness, 2016's Starboy, and 2020's After Hours); Taylor Swift (2019's Lover, 2020's Evermore and Folklore, 2021's Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version), 2022's Midnights and 2023's Speak Now (Taylor's Version)); along with Ariana Grande (2013's Yours Truly, 2014's My Everything, 2016's Dangerous Woman, 2018's Sweetner, 2019's Thank U, Next, and 2020's Positions).

Joint deals and imprints

American Recordings	Anti- Select releases	Aware Records	Big Hit Music Only for TXT
Big Machine Records	BME Recordings	Brushfire Records Only for United States, Virgin EMI Records control rest	XO Records
Casablanca Records	Cash Money Records	Cube Entertainment Only for (G)-Idle	Hollywood Records Joint deal
Imperial Music	JYP Entertainment Only for Twice, joint deal	Lava Records Only for United States, joint deal	Next Plateau Entertainment
Serjical Strike Records	Taylor Swift Productions, Inc. Joint deal	Young Money Entertainment	TR Entertainment Only for Tri.be

References

External links

• Official website
• Official Twitter.
• UMG's page on Republic Records.