Robots + Humans president Robert Ronaldson has opened up about life at Sony and his role in music's data-led A&R revolution, as well as offering a fresh take on breaking talent.
The music and technology entrepreneur teamed with Sony Music UK on the venture, which focuses on “identifying and cultivating new artists using cutting-edge A&R insights”, in 2020.
Having built a computer programme to identify potential start-ups through data, Ronaldson was persuaded to remodel the tech towards music to unearth untapped talent - leading to a meeting with Sony Music UK & Ireland chairman and CEO Jason Iley.
“Start-ups and artists are pretty similar,” said Ronaldson, who's the subject of the Music Week Interview in our new edition of the magazine out now. “They both have a core product, they’re trying to gain users and fans, and then at some point they take on funding to make it more tangible. Analytically, that is similar. [Iley] saw its value in the music marketplace."
Prior to the 2020 link-up, Ronaldson helped discover and sign artists to the major including Koffee, Regard, Young T & Bugsey and Sam Fischer.
"Being at the forefront of what’s happening for unsigned artists is a key pillar, but the second half is purely creative," he said. "Automation technology is very helpful for discovery. But as soon as the discovery process has happened and [the A&Rs] are working with the artists they want to work with, it moves solely to creative conversations.”
Speaking in the new issue of Music Week, he said that being under the Sony umbrella has been invaluable when vying for artists' signatures.
"It allows you to be competitive because of the legacy and history of Sony," he said. "If we tried to do this fully indie, I think we’d find it really tough. I don’t know if we could ever get past that first hurdle of having the recognisability to win competitive deals.”
This year we’ve put out nine singles, of which five have charted, so we’re on a good run and are having international success
Robert Ronaldson
Robots + Humans' first addition to its UK label roster was Powfu, whose hit Death Bed (feat. Beabadoobee), which became a streaming and TikTok viral sensation. It also encompasses a publishing arm in partnership with Sony Music Publishing, although Ronaldson has stepped back from management following an amicable parting of the ways with BRIT-nominated singer-songwriter Mimi Webb.
“The main focus is on the record label and publishing company," he said. "Being a manager is such a personal role and it’s pretty tricky to juggle both."
R&H has amassed four billion streams to date across recordings, management and publishing, and has charted with five of the nine songs it has released this year, including hits by Pozer (Kitchen Stove/Malicious Intentions), Flex UK (6 In the Morning) and Shy Smith (Soaked).
Its roster also includes viral sensation Henry Moodie, who has accumulated more than 500 million streams and cracked the Spotify Global Top 100 with his track Drunk Text, and London-born rapper Prinz, who had a hit in the UK last year with Highs & Lows. Ronaldson suggested the firm has come into its own in 2024.
"Fortunately enough, the first record we ever put out was a Top 5 in the UK [SwitchOTR, Coming For You] and the second one was [No.15] with Liilz, Glad U Came, so we came out quite aggressively," noted Ronaldson. "But the start of this year is when we really found our feet and have become hyper competitive with the other frontlines.
"This year we’ve put out nine singles, of which five have charted, so we’re on a good run and are having international success with artists like Henry Moodie. It’s all coming together nicely but it’s definitely challenging.
"Our ambition is to break British artists and songs and build it up. It’s taken us until the first chunk of our third year for things to settle and become more operational, but it feels good.”
You have overnight success and virality, but it’s a trap to think that is fan building. It still takes the same time and patience to build fanbases
Robert Ronaldson
Ronaldson played down concerns of a breaking artist crisis in the UK, insisiting the situation is not "as bad as it's made out to be".
"I still view it as a linear progression: you have these crazy peaks and troughs, but the trend is up," he said. "You can see that, not necessarily with British artists, but with Benson Boone and David Kushner, where the first couple of songs have viral success and then they regroup and figure out the next project and the momentum isn’t as crazy. There’s a peak, a trough and then it peaks again and takes the artist to a whole different place.
"You have overnight success and virality, but it’s a trap to think that is fan building. It still takes the same time and patience to build fanbases; those are just catalysts.”
He continued: “I think there’s an algorithmic degree to it with the way the platform serves its content. It’s harder, algorithmically, for a British artist to hit the American [Spotify] For You discovery pages. I think those platforms are anchored more with America in mind, so America’s a beacon and it filters out, which is why it can feel quite regional at times.
"But even since we’ve been a frontline, global acts have broken so it doesn’t feel like it’s totally gone. I think it feels like it’s more of a thing than it actually is because the virality is so intense.”
And despite the ever-evolving landscape, Ronaldson is convinced that signing to a major label is still the way to go for ambitious artists.
“If you want to be a global superstar, you can never underestimate the power of having a team in every country," he said. "Henry Moodie had his first explosive moment in Southeast Asia. He got to No.1 on Spotify in Indonesia and Malaysia on Drunk Text and without having a local team, it would have been a lot harder to achieve. If the ambition’s there, being part of a major group is powerful.”
Subscribers can read the full Music Week Interview with Ronaldson, which also features Robots + Humans A&R co-heads Milo Saville and Preye Crooks, in the August issue, out now. It's available online for subscribers here.
