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Robots + Humans’ Founder and President Discusses Tech and Artist Discovery
Speaking recently to Music Week, Robert Ronaldson, founder and president of Sony Music-backed Robots + Humans, explored how tech is changing the process of artist discovery.
Before striking the 2020 deal with Sony Music, Ronaldson ran software company, The White List, which helped discover and sign artists to the major including Koffee, Regard, Young T & Bugsey and Sam Fischer. Starting as a small label and partnering with other Sony frontline labels on releases – using Ronaldson’s technology-driven insights “to develop ways to market our artists online in new and creative ways” – Robots + Humans has chalked up four billion streams to date across recordings, management and publishing.
Reflecting on the changing role of tech, Ronaldson said: “I think data analytics plays a part in the discovery process for every label now… The cool thing about the machine that is Sony is a lot of the services are centralised; there’s an amazing sales team; there’s 4th Floor Creative; there are in-house radio pluggers, so we were very conscious of what we could do to offer a point of difference, otherwise we’re just a brand name with an A&R service. We spent that two to three-year period building our digital marketing offering, so we could really add value in the areas that artists were finding the hardest at the time: navigating social media, virality and how that whole thing works. That development is the main way it’s changed for us.”
He added: “The idea of using software to analyse an artist felt pretty radical during those A&R meetings back in the day before partnering with Sony, even though it seems common practice now across every label. At the start, it was hard to gain credibility as a music person, because the industry was so far away from that place, but it definitely feels like we’ve now found our place and are welcomed into the Sony fold.”