For me it has to be RCA.. I genuinely don't understand how a label with THAT much history/resources manages to make so many artists feel completely invisible the second they aren't immediately smashing.

Tinashe's entire situation there was a mess, Normani's rollout somehow took approximately 47 years, and even when they have somebody with actual momentum it always feels like the artist is fighting the label just to... release music? Christina going from one of the biggest pop stars alive to Bionic getting basically abandoned after one bad start, then Lotus coming and going like a tax write-off... all while she remained signed there.

Kesha's situation is obviously a whole different level of dark considering Kemosabe/RCA. The fact that she spent basically her entire original career tied to that system despite everything going on around it is enough for me alone. Even Avril was complaining about RCA back in 2010 because Goodbye Lullaby kept getting delayed over what she literally called "bureaucratic BS"... then left the label right after the album. Like 😭

I can't really think of any other labels that are THIS consistently messy but if you know any I'm forgetting, lmk.

Also.. honorable mention. Britney Jean.

HYBE is worse

Just now, toast said:

HYBE is worse

I agree with this too. K-pop training in itself has always seemed pretty dubious to me.

RCA always having their stuff leaked too

Is there even one record label that is actually good tho? I swear every artist has their stans complaining about their record label

3 minutes ago, antarctidaxoxo said:

RCA always having their stuff leaked too

#@><!#? Literally

2 minutes ago, Toxic Love said:

Is there even one record label that is actually good tho? I swear every artist has their stans complaining about their record label

Republic honestly seems pretty competent by major label standards.. obviously I'm sure they have their horror stories too, but they actually seem capable of taking momentum and turning it into a proper era instead of randomly shelving somebody for 4 years.

RCA is especially terrible if you're an R&B artist cncncnncn

The way they only (barely) care about Chris brown over there

SZA was very lucky to breakthrough

Edited August 28Aug 28 by Bey_Rihstan

Hollywood Records def

1 hour ago, gwen stacy said:

Hollywood Records def

Whole nother level of messsssssssssss. I agree

Yes, they don't promote they don't update certifications they don't know how to create hypes

They basically don't know how to manage an artist. I'm saying the whole Sony group not just its subsidiary RCA.

Yes!

The worst is definitely Hollywood Records and the way they fumbled all of the Disney girls eras.

6 hours ago, Stepfon said:

The worst is definitely Hollywood Records and the way they fumbled all of the Disney girls eras.

sans Miley tbh but yes that one is top five

though they did have Queen under their belt

On 8/29/2026 at 5:05 AM, chicbitch said:

Also.. honorable mention. Britney Jean.

You mean Glory. Britney was barely in Britney Jean, it was for the best they didn't really push that haha

On 8/28/2026 at 2:04 PM, chicbitch said:

For me it has to be RCA.. I genuinely don't understand how a label with THAT much history/resources manages to make so many artists feel completely invisible the second they aren't immediately smashing.

Tinashe's entire situation there was a mess, Normani's rollout somehow took approximately 47 years, and even when they have somebody with actual momentum it always feels like the artist is fighting the label just to... release music? Christina going from one of the biggest pop stars alive to Bionic getting basically abandoned after one bad start, then Lotus coming and going like a tax write-off... all while she remained signed there.

Kesha's situation is obviously a whole different level of dark considering Kemosabe/RCA. The fact that she spent basically her entire original career tied to that system despite everything going on around it is enough for me alone. Even Avril was complaining about RCA back in 2010 because Goodbye Lullaby kept getting delayed over what she literally called "bureaucratic BS"... then left the label right after the album. Like 😭

I can't really think of any other labels that are THIS consistently messy but if you know any I'm forgetting, lmk.

To be fair some of the owness falls on the artist in some of these instances. Like Normani basically gave up on her career after Motivation which at least RCA was willing to fund a decent video and VMA performance. Xtina elected to take big breaks after each album.

So they're def not a great label, but not all of these artist's failures are just their fault

1 hour ago, Stepfon said:

The worst is definitely Hollywood Records and the way they fumbled all of the Disney girls eras.

The way they would only do two singles was such a mess

On 8/30/2026 at 7:58 AM, Mook said:

You mean Glory. Britney was barely in Britney Jean, it was for the best they didn't really push that haha

Britney was with RCA since Femme Fatale's Criminal run
that's why the era was successful, and then flopped when Criminal happened because she moved to RCA