RCA Data operates on a philosophy that prioritizes creative imaginative and prescient – and constantly proves that persistence pays off.
Peter Edge, the label’s Los Angeles-based CEO, has spent the higher a part of 20 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 help for creative imaginative and prescient.
2025 has been a 12 months that completely encapsulates Edge’s strategy. Sleep Token, the mysterious British steel outsiders, mesmerized audiences like by no means earlier than, with gorgeous 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 turned a Billboard 200 No.1 in February.
In the meantime, Tyler Childers continued his genre-defying artistry, LISA’s solo enterprise stretched Okay-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, in fact, there’s SZA. The previous 12 months have seen a triumphant LANA deluxe re-issue for 2022’s big SOS album, whereas she additionally discovered time to high the Billboard Scorching 100 with Kendrick Lamar on Luther.
On the identical time, SOS has continued to cement its place as a world trendy staple; in line with Sony Corp information, it was Sony’s largest international report 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 places of work, reflecting on the label’s eclectic roster. “Music is altering, and I believe this present technology is way more open to combos [of genre] that you’d have thought wouldn’t work.”
RCA’s ‘gradual highway to greatness’ philosophy was naturally examined through the pandemic years, when the trade pivoted towards viral content material and instantaneous gratification.
The label maintained its long-term imaginative and prescient, targeted on constructing lasting careers slightly than chasing fleeting moments. That technique continues to pay dividends: the label now boasts a few of the most culturally important artists of the streaming age, every defying straightforward categorization.
“We’re not within the enterprise of constructing 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 way in which different individuals really feel.”
Tellingly, as AI encroaches into the music enterprise increasingly, 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.”
Under, MBW speaks with Edge about constructing careers in an age of shortened consideration spans, why “premium” artists are successful in a crowded market, and the way RCA turned 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 focused on telling them to compromise, and we don’t consider ‘it’s all been finished 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 possibly can marry it with a up to date standpoint.
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 refined course of to affect what individuals 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 area round individuals and permitting them to gestate to develop into significant cultural moments.
Take 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 fully created for this album.
It’s mysterious, intriguing, and compelling. It meant you had been glued to what’s happening.
It exhibits what you are able to do with long-term planning and attempting out issues that aren’t essentially the tried-and-tested “that is the way you launch a report”.
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 information they’d launched beforehand. Kudos to Dan Chertoff and Daniel Schulz on our A&R group for realizing and recognizing what was happening with them very early.
It was a curious one, as began listening to their music deeper I saved listening to actual references from different genres, particularly R&B. I spotted this artist was drawing from references which are rarely 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 way more open to listening to combos of issues that you simply might need beforehand thought wouldn’t work or can be unlikely.
I’ve at all times been drawn to that concept. The concept that one thing so totally different and eclectic may 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 develop into 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 fully 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 possibly can put her in. She’s very certain about that.
Credit score to our companions at TDE, Prime and Punch, for seeing that years in the past and simply believing in her artistry.
Her music is uncooked and emotional but superbly 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 considered one 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 needed to be identified for something aside from supporting artists, partnering with artists, and serving to them obtain their targets.
It’s onerous for them to be out entrance, to place themselves on the market and take the chance that individuals could or could not admire what they’re attempting to do.
Enjoying a supporting position 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 little thing else happening – socially, politically, this terribly unusual time that no one may 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 individuals had been going to look again on that interval and go, ‘Oh my, these songs are perpetually songs.’ To make use of the present parlance, they had been ‘moments’.
We really benefited from a few of that: Doja Cat had some big ‘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 completely unpredictable and engaging, and has an extended 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’d 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 anyone who’s develop into one of many breakout artists of this 12 months. Her album and every little 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 one else is sort of doing the way in which 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 wonderful songs in his bed room at 16 or 17 or now, forging one thing so particular.
Folks like which are 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 little thing happening with AI and the power 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 vital attention-grabbing issues about music.
I used to be chatting with a younger DJ not too long ago and he mentioned his friends have a really sharp eye for authenticity: “That particular person will not be being actual, that’s a industrial ploy, this content material will not be really genuine.”
“It’s enjoyable to work with individuals who get to develop their viewers in that approach with out compromising what they wish to say.”
The antennae for what’s actual amongst Gen Z has been examined time and again by the digital age, and perhaps they’ve had sufficient. That might have a huge impact on artistry.
All through my profession, what’s annoyed 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 adore it when nice artists within the ‘margins’ of [culture] get fashionable. It’s enjoyable to work with individuals who get to develop their viewers in that approach with out compromising what they wish 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 wish to alter your imaginative and prescient – we wish to make your imaginative and prescient larger.”
I like that. It’s the antithesis of “we make them like this” factor.
I suppose Blood Orange and Alex G are each distinguished artists in what we’d have as soon as referred to as ‘different’ or ‘indie’ music. However every little 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, it’s important to keep in a single place for an extended 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 improvement – he’s been concerned with many artists’ careers over an extended time frame.
Rob’s additionally a music man. Not solely does he consider in artist improvement, however he’s additionally an enormous fan of music.
After which I look to the individuals round me. To call only one, John Fleckenstein is such a significant a part of RCA – he’s within the heart of every little thing. He’s inventive, however he’s additionally extraordinarily solution-oriented and sensible. He has a extremely great way of translating philosophical ideas into sensible software. 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 extremely good factor.
I like the thought of a ‘collapsed timeline’. I grew up by the ’90s listening to music from throughout, which is a really British factor to do. There was an entire tradition of absorbing music from totally different occasions and locations.
Now [because of streaming], youthful artists are influenced by a 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 loads 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 extremely good factor.”
I take into consideration some new tasks we now have at RCA which are imminent. Take a look at The Crimson Clay Strays, who simply go from power to power by way of being a band that blends nation, Americana, and rock. They’re a really distinctive prospect, enjoying bigger and bigger venues, with a brand new album on the way in which subsequent 12 months. Their time is coming.
Tems has been such an necessary 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 talent. I’m very excited to see her fulfill all of her potential.
Different artists we’re enthusiastic about embrace Victoria Monét who gained Greatest New Artist on the Grammys final 12 months [2024] – there’s a lot of anticipation round her subsequent report. And I’ve simply been listening to kwn from the UK, who’s creating an entire 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, enjoying reside to crowds of individuals straight like them.
With all of the [screen time] we now have, headphones in, individuals are actually craving experiences in actual life. And for us as a label, the reside area is basically nice as an artist improvement software – it tells you way more than listening to a recording and even an in-person assembly can.Music Enterprise Worldwide
