It’s been a tough year for the U.K. music industry when it comes to breaking new acts internationally but, finally, there might be some light at the end of the tunnel.
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It comes in the form of singer-songwriter Myles Smith, whose “Stargazing” single has not just cracked the Top 5 in Britain, but is now taking the world by storm. The song has over 270 million streams on Spotify and is climbing the Billboard Hot 100, while Smith is also gaining traction across Europe and in territories as far away as South Africa, Australia and Indonesia.
But the success comes as no surprise to his label bosses – RCA U.K. co-presidents Stacey Tang and Glyn Aikins – who first heard “Stargazing” on Boxing Day, just a few days after Smith signed to the label, when the singer played it to them over FaceTime.
“I was like, ‘Is this the Christmas gift that keeps on giving?’” quips Aikins. “You can’t help but get sucked into Myles’ enthusiasm and his energy. It meant we could walk into the New Year brimming with confidence, and it’s become quite meteoric.”
Smith first came to RCA’s attention via his viral online cover of the Neighbourhood’s “Sweater Weather,” while another earlier Smith single, “Solo,” has over 110 million Spotify streams. And Tang is confident that there are plenty more hits where those came from.
“He’s going so fast, but it’s about us turning him into an albums artist,” she tells Variety . “He’s got the music, he’s driven, the fans are coming to see him in droves. He’s a voracious songwriter and when he says he has the next song, he’s really got the next one!”
Tang says the changing pop landscape, with recent hits from the likes of Noah Kahan and Benson Boone, has helped facilitate Smith’s rapid breakthrough, especially in America, where he is released via RCA’s U.S. arm.
“All of a sudden, there were people releasing things that were singer-songwriter, but also blues-tinged or had their roots in country,” she says. “Myles’ honest performances and all the live shows going well helped us capture an American audience really quickly.”
“It’s tough to export artists globally,” adds Aikins. “But where America’s concerned, we’ve worked out how to work in a more joined-up fashion from the start. We’re really aligned on it.”
Smith is currently on tour in America and will return for further U.S. dates in September, October and November. He is now working on his debut album with songwriters including Steph Jones, Amy Allen, Peter Fenn and Jesse Fink, but Tang and Aikins note his success is far from a one-off for RCA’s U.K. company.
Little Mix star Jade [Thirlwall] has made a strong start to her solo career, with “Angel of My Dreams” debuting at No. 7 in the U.K. (“We knew the music was brilliant and she’s an amazing artist, but the way it’s landed and the pieces that have been written about her have been phenomenal,” says Tang.) Meanwhile, the likes of Mercury Prize nominee Cat Burns and Bring Me the Horizon are also flying the flag for British music on the label, also home to U.S. superstars such as Pink and Beyoncé. And Tang and Aikins, who took over the leadership of the label in February 2023, say their vision is just starting to take shape.
“We’ve both been in Sony for a while,” says Tang. “Neither of us are shirkers when it comes to driving things forward. We’re not this distant, hierarchical duo; we’re involved in records all of the time, so it’s nice the 14 months of work that we’ve all been doing collectively is now showing up in public.
“While you’re getting everything right behind the scenes it’s hard to measure,” she adds. “You think the vibe’s good but other people’s reactions are missing. Now that we’re releasing everything, it feels great.”
“Where we’re at now is a fantastic place to build from,” says Aikins. “We want to sign the most exciting acts and represent the best in breed in each lane possible. The job here is to build as robust a domestic roster as there is an international one here – and we have a very robust international roster!”
In the meantime, the duo plan to keep building Myles Smith until he’s a genuine global star.
“There’s no ceiling on it to my mind,” says Aikins. “To Ed Sheeran and beyond, why not?”
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Meanwhile, former RCA U.K. President David Dollimore is back in the game with his new company, Disorder Records .
Dollimore took RCA to No. 1 in the U.K. market share charts in 2021 before leaving in 2023 and, in an exclusive interview, tells Variety he has ambitious plans for his new label group.
He hopes Disorder will serve as an umbrella for other label partnerships, the first of which is dance music imprint WHP Records, in conjunction with Richard McGinnis and Sam Kandel, founders of Manchester clubbing phenomenon The Warehouse Project.
WHP’s debut release, “Wouldn’t Believe” by DJ/producer Bakey, came out earlier this month, while Disorder Records itself is already finding success with Disclosure’s “She’s Gone, Dance On” hit.
“We’re building a house of labels,” Dollimore explains. “I’ve grown up admiring Martin Mills and what Beggars Group have done, where they have Rough Trade, XL, Young, 4AD and other labels. The long-term ambition for our independent record company is to have a house of brands filled by different partnerships in different areas, and that might not just be in the electronic space.”
Dollimore cut his teeth in dance music at Ministry of Sound, rising from intern to MD before joining Sony Music U.K. when it acquired Ministry of Sound Recordings in 2016. And he believes WHP and Disorder can replicate some of Ministry’s influence, which at its peak stretched across everything from compilation albums to its legendary London nightclub.
“People probably forget because it’s very much a major company now, but Ministry was signing artists, giving them residencies, giving them compilation deals, radio shows…,” he says. “It was definitely more of a 360-degree approach.
“The Warehouse Project have been in the business a long time, booking incredible talent,” he adds. “Having a label in Manchester creates an opportunity that reminds me of Ministry in its heyday, where you have artists that play the shows and are also signed to the company.”
Dollimore also plans to launch Disorder publishing and management divisions, and is looking at live opportunities for the label as well as possible partnerships with fashion brands.
And, while Disorder may be independent, it is backed by major label firepower in the form of a partnership with Capitol Music Group and its chairman-CEO, Tom March. Not so long ago, Dollimore and March were duking it out at the top of the U.K. market share charts, as presidents of RCA and Polydor respectively, but Dollimore says their partnership is already producing results.
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“We did compete on things – and he won a number of times!” laughs Dollimore. “His attention to detail is phenomenal and he’s very excited about Disclosure and a number of artists that we’ve signed recently. There’s always a solution with Tom – there’s never any negativity, there’s always a positive outlook, which is exactly what you need when you’re starting a JV.”
Dollimore says he enjoyed his time at RCA, noting that acts signed on his watch – including Jade [Thirlwall], Cat Burns and Jordan Adetunji – are enjoying success (the latter on 300/Warner Records UK, having since left the Sony label).
“Do I miss it? I wouldn’t change it!” he laughs. “But I’m much happier on the outside right now. I learned a lot running a major record company, and it’s something in my career I needed to experience. But, deep down, I realized I’m one of those entrepreneurs that carves their own path.
“Being outside of the system gives you a lot more perspective and a razor-sharp focus on what you can do in order to find and develop talent,” he adds. “The main factor is always time; you can have a TikTok record and you may have a hit, but building an artist is so important, you can’t rush any of that.”
And, with dance music booming again around the world, Dollimore believes there is a real opportunity for British electronic acts to break through internationally.
“I’m excited by the quality of the electronic music coming out,” he says. “It was amazing to see how busy Barry Can’t Swim’s set was at Glastonbury and to see what Fred Again’s delivered around the world.
“There was a real ceiling for a while, where there were just a few traditional headliners in dance music – but now there’s a new school of talent coming through,” he adds. “The U.K. has got great talent and great A&Rs. We’ve just got to focus – the sky’s the limit on where this company could be in five years’ time.”
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Meanwhile, another former major label president, Darcus Beese , is telling his remarkable life story in a new book, “Rebel With a Cause.” It charts his journey from the streets of West London to becoming president of Island U.K., and then president-CEO of its American sister label.
Published by Nine Eight Books on Aug. 15, the book – at turns both laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving – details his adventures with artists such as Amy Winehouse, Florence + the Machine, U2 and Shawn Mendes; and his personal achievements (he was a trailblazer for Black British music executives, and was honored with an OBE from the Queen). But it also covers his struggles with corporate politics, racism and mental health issues.
“It’s about everything I had to deal with along the way,” he tells Variety . “You start laying it all out. If I was the first of my generation to do it, then I should impart some of that. But it was never going to be in a salacious way, it was just ‘This much I know’ in terms of my journey, what I’ve learned and how sometimes you should be careful what you wish for.”
After huge success at Island U.K., Beese was promoted to run the U.S. label in 2018. But, despite more hits, the book details his struggle to adjust to life in New York, particularly under the COVID-19 lockdowns. He left the label in 2021, citing “personal reasons.”
Beese notes that many of his signings – including Remi Wolf, Baby Rose, Keshi and Sabrina Carpenter – are now finding success, although the exec says he’s glad he left when he did.
“I don’t regret it, because I would’ve had to suffer another couple of years and, at the time, I didn’t know when we were going to be back at work,” he says. “My deal was running down, my daughter couldn’t get to America and the country was a powder keg, especially New York.
“You get to a point and go, ‘Whose benefit are you actually doing this for?’” he adds. “And, at that point, it was for everybody else’s benefit, bar mine. The economics weren’t the issue, it was the mental health.”
His departure ended Beese’s 30-year association with the Island label, where he first started as an intern, before working his way up to the top job.
“It was an emotional wrench to leave,” he says. “Because I had no sense of who I was without Island.”
Writing the book has played an important role in answering that question, alongside his new label, Darco Recordings. Originally a JV with Warner Music U.K., where he also joined as EVP in 2021, Beese reveals to Variety that he has now left Warner and will run Darco as an independent.
“After leaving America, the Warner deal felt like a good opportunity to go again, this time more on my own terms,” he says. “It was an interesting three years, but what it made me realize more than ever, particularly with the change in the landscape, was that you’ve really got to back yourself. And that’s my next move. I can’t tell you how excited I am with what’s to come.”
Beese is confident he can retain his Midas touch with breaking artists in the indie world (“It’ll be interesting to see where the next big act breaks from – I’d like to think Raye is not an anomaly”), after guiding the likes of Sugababes and Amy Winehouse to stardom in the major label environment.
But Beese says he’s unfazed that his part in the latter’s success seemed to be downplayed in the recent biopic “Back to Black.”
“I had to go on IMDB to look at the guy who was playing ‘Darcus’ – they didn’t give me a surname! – and I was like, ‘Oh, the dude that didn’t say anything in the room!’” he laughs. “If you were front row to it, it’s difficult to have an opinion, because there was a lot of creative license.”
Beese praises Marisa Abela’s performance as Winehouse but says the singer “was a much stronger personality than was portrayed in the film.”
“I saw reviews [that said] Amy was an artist surrounded by men making decisions that weren’t great for her. Amy was a very strong-willed person; there was never any telling Amy what to do,” he says. “I was more intimidated by her than she would have been by anyone. You give [artists] space and resources and when they do need the expertise, it’s there. But for the most part, you know what your role is – and that’s not to take center-stage.”
Ironically, Beese has already had offers to turn his own story into a biopic, but he says he’ll be concentrating on his label for now.
“Building career artists, that’s all we can hang our future on,” he declares. “I would absolutely not be getting up in the morning if I didn’t think I had them on the roster.”
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