ASYLUM UPDATE:

Perhaps the year’s worst-kept industry secret is that Geffen Records is launching a second label, using the reactivated moniker of Asylum Records. (Founded in the mid-’70s by David Geffen, Asylum was affiliated with Elektra Records but has been dormant in recent years.) Several key Geffen execs, including promotion wiz Marko Babineau and A&R; heavyweights Tom Zutaut and Gary Gersh, are expected to play major roles in the label’s development. Industry insiders say the Asylum start-up is a shrewd marketing strategy aimed at giving Geffen’s promotion staff a better shot at getting more radio airplay for its artists. The big question: If Geffen has already hired a number of new promotion staffers, why hasn’t it officially announced the label? The answer: Geffen’s distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records is up at the end of the year. If Geffen’s top brass end up signing a deal with a different label or selling the company outright (recent suitors have reportedly included Paramount and EMI), it would no longer have the rights to the Asylum name, which is owned by Warner Inc. So expect Geffen’s distribution deal to be cleared up before any Asylum announcement hits the papers.