RCA Information operates on a philosophy that prioritizes creative imaginative and prescient – and persistently proves that endurance pays off.
Peter Edge, the label’s Los Angeles-based CEO, has spent the higher a part of twenty years constructing what he describes as a “premium content material” philosophy.
It’s an honor that, appropriately, celebrates executives who mix industrial success with unwavering assist for creative imaginative and prescient.
2025 has been a yr that completely encapsulates Edge’s strategy. Sleep Token, the mysterious British steel outsiders, mesmerized audiences like by no means earlier than, with beautiful outcomes – together with their newest album topping the Billboard 200 in Might.
Elsewhere, Tate McRae’s pop evolution reached new heights; her newest album, So Near What, additionally grew to become a Billboard 200 No.1 in February.
In the meantime, Tyler Childers continued his genre-defying artistry, LISA’s solo enterprise stretched Ok-Pop conference, Doja Cat roared again with the ’80s-inspired Vie, and the likes of Myles Smith and Wolf Alice demonstrated a slick collaboration between Edge’s US-based label and Sony Music’s UK operation.
Then, after all, there’s SZA. The previous 12 months have seen a triumphant LANA deluxe re-issue for 2022’s large SOS album, whereas she additionally discovered time to prime the Billboard Sizzling 100 with Kendrick Lamar on Luther.
On the similar time, SOS has continued to cement its place as a worldwide trendy staple; based on Sony Corp information, it was Sony’s largest international document for the agency’s previous two fiscal years.
“I’ve at all times been drawn to issues that appear unlikely,” Edge explains from RCA’s workplaces, reflecting on the label’s eclectic roster. “Music is altering, and I feel this present technology is rather more open to mixtures [of genre] that you’d have thought wouldn’t work.”
RCA’s ‘sluggish highway to greatness’ philosophy was naturally examined in the course of the pandemic years, when the trade pivoted towards viral content material and immediate gratification.
The label maintained its long-term imaginative and prescient, targeted on constructing lasting careers moderately than chasing fleeting moments. That technique continues to pay dividends: the label now boasts a few of the most culturally vital artists of the streaming age, every defying straightforward categorization.
“We’re not within the enterprise of creating widgets,” Edge notes, referencing a commodified A&R strategy he’s spent his profession rejecting. “We’re within the enterprise of working with individuals who change the best way different folks really feel.”
Tellingly, as AI encroaches into the music enterprise an increasing number of, Edge stays assured in artwork with a soul. He notes: “Maybe the factor that’s going to be most precious in music is the human half – the half that isn’t copyable… the half that isn’t primarily based on some type of predisposed method.”
Beneath, MBW speaks with Edge about constructing careers in an age of shortened consideration spans, why “premium” artists are profitable in a crowded market, and the way RCA grew to become the anti-algorithm main label…
WHEN MBW LAST INTERVIEWED YOU IN 2019, YOU LIKENED YOUR APPROACH TO HBO: “PREMIUM CONTENT FOR A SUBSCRIPTION AUDIENCE.” HOW HAS THAT PHILOSOPHY EVOLVED IN THE STREAMING AGE?
Creatively, RCA has the identical mindset as a big unbiased.
Artists’ fixed means to play with style and reinvent themselves actually excites us; we’re not inquisitive about telling them to compromise, and we don’t imagine ‘it’s all been achieved earlier than’.
“Creatively, RCA has the identical mindset as a big unbiased.”
Even when one thing strongly takes a cue from one other period, you may marry it with a recent perspective.
We mix that creative appreciation with an understanding and experience round information and reaching international audiences.
ON THE DATA AND MARKETING SIDE, WHAT’S CHANGED FROM A FEW YEARS AGO?
Issues are far more complicated than they ever was once.
It’s a really delicate course of to affect what persons are open to connecting to. There’s no ‘one factor’ you are able to do to open that door.
We concentrate on viewers perceptions and influences, placing issues within the house round folks and permitting them to gestate to turn out to be significant cultural moments.
Have a look at what the RCA group put along with Sleep Token – this unbelievable long-lead marketing campaign ran for six months, bringing the fan right into a world utterly created for this album.
It’s mysterious, intriguing, and compelling. It meant you had been glued to what’s occurring.
It reveals what you are able to do with long-term planning and making an attempt out issues that aren’t essentially the tried-and-tested “that is the way you launch a document”.
SLEEP TOKEN IS PERHAPS YOUR MOST POINTED EXAMPLE OF GENRE FLUIDITY FROM THE PAST YEAR. HOW DID THAT SIGNING COME ABOUT?
We’d been observing them constructing an unbelievable fanbase from the data they’d launched beforehand. Kudos to Dan Chertoff and Daniel Schulz on our A&R group for realizing and recognizing what was occurring with them very early.
It was a curious one, as began listening to their music deeper I stored listening to actual references from different genres, specifically R&B. I noticed this artist was drawing from references which might be hardly drawn on in music broadly outlined in that approach [as hard rock/metal].
It speaks to what I used to be saying earlier: this present technology is rather more open to listening to mixtures of issues that you just may need beforehand thought wouldn’t work or could be unlikely.
I’ve at all times been drawn to that concept. The concept one thing so totally different and eclectic might work on RCA, to me, was by no means in query.
Photograph Credit score: Sam Waxman
TYLER CHILDERS ALSO FITS INTO THIS CONVERSATION: HE’S A COUNTRY ARTIST, BUT ALSO FAR FROM ‘JUST’ A COUNTRY ARTIST.
Tyler [pictured inset] is totally his personal factor. He’s turn out to be this technology’s North Star for artistry in so some ways.
He’s a outstanding man as a result of his views about life, his pursuits, and influences, are utterly unpredictable.
NOW I THINK ABOUT IT… SZA IS R&B, BUT SHE’S ALSO NOT R&B. THIS IS BECOMING A THEME.
SZA is… as SZA does! She’s no matter she feels and desires to do, and there’s no field you may put her in. She’s very certain about that.
Credit score to our companions at TDE, High and Punch, for seeing that years in the past and simply believing in her artistry.
Her music is uncooked and emotional but fantastically melodic, like a few of the nice artists of the previous many years.
SZA is simply so actual. If I wasn’t working together with her, she’d nonetheless be one in every of my favourite artists.
I NOTICE YOU KEEP TALKING ABOUT THE ARTISTS… I’M GOING TO HAVE TO TRICK YOU INTO TALKING ABOUT YOURSELF AT SOME POINT.
The artists are why we’re right here. I’ve by no means wished to be identified for something aside from supporting artists, partnering with artists, and serving to them obtain their objectives.
It’s arduous for them to be out entrance, to place themselves on the market and take the chance that individuals might or might not respect what they’re making an attempt to do.
Taking part in a supporting function to them is a superb privilege.
DURING THE PANDEMIC, THE INDUSTRY PIVOTED TOWARD VIRAL HITS AND INSTANT GRATIFICATION. HOW DID RCA MAINTAIN ITS LONG-TERM PHILOSOPHY DURING THAT PERIOD?
In 2020, amongst every thing else occurring – socially, politically, this terribly unusual time that no person might ever think about – all of it felt a bit like, ‘What is that this music about?’
More often than not [listening to new popular music at the time], it didn’t really feel like folks had been going to look again on that interval and go, ‘Oh my, these songs are ceaselessly songs.’ To make use of the present parlance, they had been ‘moments’.
We really benefited from a few of that: Doja Cat had some large ‘moments’ in 2020 and 2021, however we knew she was by no means only a ‘second’ – we’ve labored together with her for a very long time. She’s an artist who’s solely unpredictable and engaging, and has a protracted profession forward of her, as you’re seeing now as she enters her ‘Vie’ period.
THAT RAISES THE BROADER QUESTION ABOUT ARTIST DEVELOPMENT. THERE’S A NARRATIVE THAT MAJORS JUST DON’T DO IT ANYMORE.
I might argue that RCA type of disproves that. Tate McRae is a superb instance.
We signed her when she was 15 or 16, constructing from the platforms she’d created on YouTube as a dancer and songwriter.
Edge with Tate McRae
We’ve constructed her profession collectively from a really small starting into any person who’s turn out to be one of many breakout artists of this yr. Her album and every thing related to it are outstanding.
WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR WHEN SIGNING ARTISTS?
What is exclusive about this artist? What do they do this no person else is kind of doing the best way they do it? What are they about that’s not duplicated elsewhere?
I consider Steve Lacy. It is a man who outlined his personal future – whether or not making superb songs in his bed room at 16 or 17 or now, forging one thing so particular.
Folks like which might be very thrilling to me as a result of their imaginative and prescient and their means to make one thing actually singular and distinctive, creatively their very own factor, is outstanding.
IT’S INTERESTING THAT YOU FOCUS A LOT ON THE PEOPLE YOU’RE SIGNING, THEIR CHARACTER, NOT JUST THEIR MUSIC. IT LEADS TO A PHILOSOPHICAL CONVERSATION ABOUT HUMAN AUTHENTICITY VERSUS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.
With every thing occurring with AI and the flexibility to launch music, maybe the factor that’s going to be most precious is the human half – the half that isn’t copyable… the half that isn’t primarily based on some type of predisposed method.
How heartfelt, how genuine, how uncommon is that this piece of expression? That’s at all times been one of the fascinating issues about music.
I used to be talking to a younger DJ just lately and he stated his friends have a really sharp eye for authenticity: “That particular person just isn’t being actual, that’s a industrial ploy, this content material just isn’t really genuine.”
“It’s enjoyable to work with individuals who get to develop their viewers in that approach with out compromising what they need to say.”
The antennae for what’s actual amongst Gen Z has been examined again and again by the digital age, and possibly they’ve had sufficient. That might have a huge impact on artistry.
All through my profession, what’s pissed off me has been seeing the “we make them like this” strategy – altering [an artist’s sound] so that they match a preconceived notion of what audiences will like.
Artists will not be widgets. I like it when nice artists within the ‘margins’ of [culture] get common. It’s enjoyable to work with individuals who get to develop their viewers in that approach with out compromising what they need to say.
IT USED TO BE THE CASE THAT THE INDUSTRY HAD ‘MAJORS’ AND ‘INDIES’, WITH A STRICT DIVIDING LINE. THAT’S CHANGED A LOT, ESPECIALLY THANKS TO THE DEALS THAT GET DONE, WITH MORE ARTISTS OWNING RIGHTS AND LICENSING TO THE MAJORS. BUT CULTURALLY, TOO, THERE’S NO GREAT ISSUE WITH ‘SIGNING TO A MAJOR’ FROM THE INDIE ECOSYSTEM. I’VE JUST SEEN YOU’VE SIGNED TWO ARTISTS FROM THE ‘INDIE’ WORLD – ALEX G AND BLOOD ORANGE.
Artists can come right here and our philosophy is like, “No, we don’t need to alter your imaginative and prescient – we need to make your imaginative and prescient greater.”
I like that. It’s the antithesis of “we make them like this” factor.
I suppose Blood Orange and Alex G are each outstanding artists in what we’d have as soon as referred to as ‘different’ or ‘indie’ music. However every thing’s damaged down now; these labels are disappearing.
YOU’VE BEEN AT SONY/RCA FOR OVER TWO DECADES, FOLLOWING YOUR SUCCESSES AT J RECORDS WORKING WITH CLIVE DAVIS. WHY DOES SONY’S STRUCTURE SUPPORT YOUR ARTISTIC VISION?
To develop artists and see them by means of, it’s important to keep in a single place for a protracted time frame. That comes with the territory.
I’ve been lucky that [Sony Music Group Chairman] Rob Stringer shares that imaginative and prescient of artist growth – he’s been concerned with many artists’ careers over a protracted time frame.
Rob’s additionally a music man. Not solely does he imagine in artist growth, however he’s additionally a giant fan of music.
After which I look to the folks round me. To call only one, John Fleckenstein is such a significant a part of RCA – he’s within the middle of every thing. He’s inventive, however he’s additionally extraordinarily solution-oriented and sensible. He has a very great way of translating philosophical ideas into sensible utility. That’s invaluable.
OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS, THE INDUSTRY HAS SEEN THE RISE OF CATALOG MUSIC DOMINATING STREAMING. HOW DO YOU VIEW THAT CHALLENGE?
From a enterprise perspective, clearly frontline labels face challenges when everybody listens to music from different many years. However on a inventive stage, it’s really a very good factor.
I like the concept of a ‘collapsed timeline’. I grew up by means of the ’90s listening to music from throughout, which is a really British factor to do. There was a complete tradition of absorbing music from totally different instances and locations.
Now [because of streaming], youthful artists are influenced by a much wider vary of music.
Even 10 years in the past, you’d discover sure artists who referenced music in that approach, however there have been a number of others who simply targeted on the mainstream sound of the time.
“From a enterprise perspective, clearly frontline labels face challenges when everybody listens to music from different many years. However on a inventive stage, it’s really a very good factor.”
I take into consideration some new initiatives we now have at RCA which might be imminent. Have a look at The Pink Clay Strays, who simply go from power to power when it comes to being a band that blends nation, Americana, and rock. They’re a really distinctive prospect, taking part in bigger and bigger venues, with a brand new album on the best way subsequent yr. Their time is coming.
Tems has been such an vital voice popping out of the brand new Afrobeat scene in Nigeria, however frankly she’s gone past any style and any borders. She has that very particular and distinctive voice and writing ability. I’m very excited to see her fulfill all of her potential.
Different artists we’re enthusiastic about embody Victoria Monét who gained Greatest New Artist on the Grammys final yr [2024] – there’s a number of anticipation round her subsequent document. And I’ve simply been listening to kwn from the UK, who’s creating a complete new tackle what ‘R&B’ might be, from a unique viewpoint we’ve seen earlier than.
DO YOU EVER WORRY THAT THE TRANSITORY NATURE OF MEDIA CONSUMPTION AMONGST YOUNG AUDIENCES – AND ALL THAT CHOICE WITH CATALOG MUSIC – IS GOING TO KILL FANDOM OF NEW ARTISTS?
No. The factor that’s so potent with youthful artists is that they’re right here now, taking part in dwell to crowds of individuals immediately like them.
With all of the [screen time] we now have, headphones in, persons are actually craving experiences in actual life. And for us as a label, the dwell enviornment is de facto nice as an artist growth software – it tells you rather more than listening to a recording and even an in-person assembly can.Music Enterprise Worldwide
