Godney Jeansus: You can look (but don’t touch) and you can sign her–if you catch her from her good side.
After seven studio albums, Britney’s deal with Jive, now Sony/RCA Records, will end after the release of her impending eighth studio album. And according to The Hollywood Reporter‘s Shirley Halperin, there’s a whole lot of people who want a piece of B if/when she starts considering a new record contract, including Epic Records president and fellow X Factor judge L.A. Reid and former Jive leader, Barry Weiss, now the head of Universal Republic and Island Def Jam Motown.
From Billboard:
Both execs want to sign the singer, 30, whose seven studio releases have sold some 100 million units worldwide, to their rosters (at a cost of $3 million to $5 million per album, according to one estimate).
Weiss, who essentially swapped jobs with Reid in 2011, at least where IDJ is concerned, has time on his side. “I have a 15-year history with Britney and would love to be reunited with her,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter. Indeed, Weiss is one of few executives with whom Spears has interacted directly and he represents a sort of “comfort zone for Britney,” says an insider. “Barry understands how her business is run and the many buffers in place.”
Now, if it were up to me, I’d tell B to either stick with RCA or jump ship to Barry Weiss. He’s already been with her for 15 years, and there’s no reason to stop now. I mean, L.A. is #BeEpic and all, and I know they’re totes BFFs on X Factor (just wait for the gift baskets of vanilla candles in her dressing room!), but…well, this line sort of says it all, doesn’t it?
Reid, with whom Spears has become “chummy” since joining “X Factor” — to the extent that she and Demi Lovato swapped table positions so Spears can sit to Reid’s left — is in dire need of an artist who can chart, having run Epic for more than a year now with nary a hit to its name (staffers insist new signings Ciara and Avril Lavigne could turn the tide).
No, staffers. No. Need I remind you of the promo for Ciara‘s One Woman Army so far?
But really, it doesn’t really matter where she winds up. She’s Britney Fucking Spears. She could launch a label called I Hate Fuckin’ Waitin Records, appoint Jayden James and Sean Preston as co-presidents and Sabi as an intern, and still slay the charts, sell out arenas and set the trends in pop for years to come. (Actually, please do that, B.)
Adds another high-ranking executive: “She’s a hot commodity, and that’s a good position to be in.”
And it feeeeeeeels nice.
