#1 Indie Dance Label Signs with Def Jam

New York, NYC  Thrive Records, whose hit-driven Total series and ThriveMix series contributed to the company’s ranking as Billboard’s #1 U.S. independent dance label for the second year in a row in 2009, has signed an exclusive worldwide multi-year production and distribution (p&d) deal with Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJ), it was announced today by Steve Bartels, President & C.O.O., Island Def Jam Music Group.

Working with IDJ, Thrive will now be able to expand its worldwide reach, in both the compilation and artist development areas. Inaugurating the new association between Thrive and IDJ is the recent release of the next volume in one of the label’s best-selling multi-artist compilation series: TOTAL CLUB HITS 4 (mixed by the Black Eyed Peas’ DJ Poet Name Life), which debuted at #25 this week on the Billboard Top 200.  This will be followed by THRIVEMIX PRESENTS: DANCE NATION (mixed by club icon DJ Skribble) which will be in stores and online on Feb 9.  Both albums will benefit from massive marketing, promotion, sales, and merchandising campaigns across the traditional and new media and retail spectrums.

TOTAL CLUB HITS 4 is the follow-up to Thrive’s Total Club Hits 3 (released July 21st), which included major chart track remixes from such stars as Kanye West & Young Jeezy (“Put On”), Jamie Foxx (“Just Like Me”), Ciara & T-Pain (“Go Girl”), Akon (“Right Now (Na Na Na)”), Drake (“I’m Still Fly”), Flo Rida, Gorilla Zoe, Bobby Valentino, and many others.

The previous volumes in this series, Total Club Hits 2 (released January 2009) and the premiere Total Club Hits (released June 2008) have presented major chart mixes cumulatively by such artists Rihanna featuring Jay-Z (“Umbrella” Travis Barker Remix), Estelle featuring Kanye West (“American Boy”), Missy Elliott, T.I., Lupe Fiasco, Diddy and Keyshia Cole, Pitbull, Usher, Bow Wow, Shawty Lo, John Legend, and many, many others.  Together, the Total Club Hits and Total Dance series have sold over 800,000 copies in North America; and the combined ThriveMix series have sold in excess of 300,000 copies.

Thrive Records, which has successfully built top selling TV branded compilations in the club, dance and rock genres, was founded by Ricardo Vinas in 1997, with the groundbreaking Global Underground DJ mix series.  Prior to that, Vinas was co-founder of America’s first electronic music label, Moonshine Music, one of the most successful independent record companies of the 1990s.  Thrive went on to develop worldwide tastemaker electronic dance artists Paul Oakenfold and Deep Dish (among many others), with albums by Oakenfold and Deep Dish earning Grammy nominations along the way. Thrive has also released movie soundtrack albums for seminal electronic music-driven films including Memento, Pi, Requiem For a Dream, and Irreversible (the first scoring effort from Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter).

In 2010, Thrive will debut Steve Aoki, one of the most influential DJ/producers in the emerging Electro Dance scene, who has built a worldwide fanbase with his non-stop touring and remix work for everyone from the Killers to Katy Perry to Bloc Party.  The first single from Aoki’s album, “I’m In The House” featuring [[[zuper blahq]]], will be released January 26th.