A month after his exit from Columbia Records, Joel Klaiman has a new job at Hitco Entertainment, the label founded by L.A. Reid and Charles Goldstuck that’s home to Outkast’s Big Boi, Fifth Harmony’s Dinah Jane and newcomer rappers SAINt JHN and Yella Beezy.
Klaiman joins the Los Angeles-based company as President. He will be based out of New York.
Hitco is distributed through EMPIRE, the independent company which helped propel such hits as D.R.A.M.’s “Broccoli” featuring Lil Yachty, and Fat Joe and Remy Ma’s “All the Way Up.”
“Joel is an experienced, world class executive who has mastered all facets of the music business,” said Reid and Goldstuck, “With Joel joining our leadership team, we are now well poised to take the next step in our growth cycle. We’re excited that he will help drive our efforts as we move toward building a world class music enterprise.”
“L.A. and Charles have created a forward-thinking company to develop and produce music-focused projects for distribution across all platforms,” said Klaiman. “I am excited for this new role as we work together to realize Hitco’s goal of creating great music and helping artists rise to new heights of success.”
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Joel Klaiman left Columbia, where he served as executive VP and GM, in August after a six-year run, Variety reported. A veteran promotion and marketing executive, Klaiman had oversight of the label’s marketing, digital marketing, promotion, publicity, branding, sync licensing, video production and content development departments.
Columbia was Klaiman’s second stint at Sony Music, having previously held senior promotion roles at Epic Records Group and Sony 550 Music from 1996 to 2006, rising to executive VP of promotion at Epic. He also spent six years at Republic as executive vp of promotion and artist development working with such acts as Amy Winehouse, Florence + the Machine, Taylor Swift, Gotye and more.
On Sept. 4, seasoned Sony executive Jenifer Malory was named EVP/GM of Columbia, ascending from EVP, International Marketing.