RCA Records

==Criticisms and controversies==
===Kenny Rogers===
After [[Kenny Rogers]] left RCA Records in 1987, he accused the label of trying to ruin his career. Rogers had signed to RCA in 1982 for an advance sum of $20 million (the largest deal ever in country music up to that time) when Bob Summer was head of the label.<ref name="Kenny R NYT">{{cite news |last1=Holden |first1=Steven |date=July 28, 1982 |title=The Pop Life: Gambling on Kenny Rogers |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/07/28/arts/the-pop-life-rca-gambling-on-kenny-rogers.html?pagewanted=all |access-date=October 5, 2015}}</ref>

===Kelly Clarkson===
In the summer of 2007, [[Kelly Clarkson]] and Clive Davis, then head of [[Sony BMG]], feuded publicly regarding the direction of her album ''[[My December]]'', the follow-up to Clarkson's multi-platinum album, ''[[Breakaway (Kelly Clarkson album)|Breakaway]]''. Clarkson wrote the songs on ''My December'', "showcasing her own songwriting on darker, edgier rock-oriented fare", and Davis insisted Clarkson work with hired hitmakers, as she had previously, on "polished, radio-friendly songs". Clarkson refused to change the album, and it was released in June 2007. It has since been certified platinum.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Newman |first=Melinda |url=http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6524077/kelly-clarkson-worth-american-idol-contract |title=Now Free From Her Idol Contract, What's Kelly Clarkson Worth? |magazine=Billboard |date=April 3, 2015 |access-date=August 8, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Benjamin |first=Jeff |url=http://www.fuse.tv/2015/03/kelly-clarkson-kept-it-so-real-best-moments |title=9 Times Kelly Clarkson Kept it Real |publisher=Fuse |date=March 3, 2015 |access-date=August 8, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Du Lac |first1=J. Freedom |title='My December': Kelly Clarkson, Striking Out On Her Own |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/25/AR2007062501859.html |access-date=August 22, 2015 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=June 26, 2007}}</ref>

===Avril Lavigne===
In November 2010, [[Avril Lavigne]] stated that the long delay of her fourth album, ''[[Goodbye Lullaby]]'', was due to "a bunch of bureaucratic [[Bullshit|BS]]" related to RCA.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Official Avril Lavigne Site|url=http://www.avrillavigne.com/?p=120|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101115035413/http://www.avrillavigne.com/?p=120|archive-date=November 15, 2010|access-date=January 8, 2012|publisher=Avril Lavigne}}</ref> The album was ultimately released in March 2011. In October 2011, Lavigne confirmed that she had left RCA and signed with sister label [[Epic Records]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.925thebeat.ca/audioplayer.php?mp3=113406 |title=Audio Player |publisher=92.5 THE BEAT Montreal's Best Music Variety Radio Station |format=MP3 (audio) |access-date=January 8, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521161349/http://www.925thebeat.ca/audioplayer.php?mp3=113406 |archive-date=May 21, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last=Halperin|first=Shirley|date=November 17, 2011|title=Avril Lavigne Shifts to Epic Records, Reunites With L.A. Reid|url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/1160283/avril-lavigne-shifts-to-epic-records-reunites-with-la-reid|access-date=January 8, 2012|magazine=Billboard|publisher=}}</ref>

===Brooke Candy===
In early 2017, [[Brooke Candy]] left RCA before the release of her initially planned debut studio album ''Daddy Issues'', citing creative stifling for her departure and accusing the label of taking control of her sound and image, as well as dictating what she could publicly say and do.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jpost.com/j-spot/brooke-candy-isnt-all-that-sweet-587000|title=Brooke Candy isn't all that sweet|work=[[The Jerusalem Post]]|last=Spiro|first=Amy|date=April 16, 2019|accessdate=June 10, 2023}}</ref> She later claimed that she "fought, bare-fucking knuckle, to get the fuck out of [RCA]" and that Sony had taken ownership of the scrapped album's songs despite not allowing her to release them, leaving her back at square one musically.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vulture.com/2019/10/brooke-candy-aquaria-violet-chachki-sexorcism.html|title=Brooke Candy Called on Drag Race's Aquaria and Violet Chachki's 'Nasty, Glam' Wisdom for New Album|work=[[Vulture (website)|Vulture]]|last=Curto|first=Justin|date=October 28, 2019|accessdate=June 10, 2023}}</ref>

=== R. Kelly ===
RCA ignored allegations of sexual misconduct by [[R. Kelly]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2018-05-04 |title=How the music industry overlooked R. Kelly’s alleged abuse of young women - The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2018/05/04/feature/how-the-music-industry-overlooked-r-kellys-alleged-abuse-of-young-women/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180504212853/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2018/05/04/feature/how-the-music-industry-overlooked-r-kellys-alleged-abuse-of-young-women/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2018-05-04 |access-date=2022-12-12 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Schatz |first=Lake |date=2019-01-16 |title=Video surfaces proving R. Kelly definitely knew Aaliyah was only 15 at the time of marriage |url=https://consequence.net/2019/01/video-proof-rkelly-knew-age-aaliyah/ |access-date=2022-12-12 |website=Consequence |language=en-US}}</ref> which included running a violent cult, wherein he held teenage individuals hostage in exchange for sexual favors.<ref name=":0" /> Kelly continued to release music for RCA through 2018, when pressure from the [[Mute R. Kelly]] campaign mounted against him.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Farley |first=Rebecca |title=#MuteRKelly Got Live & Personal At A Rally In New York City |url=https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/01/221925/r-kelly-color-of-change-rally-nyc-rca-records |access-date=2022-12-12 |website=www.refinery29.com |language=en}}</ref> In January 2019, following the broadcast of [[Lifetime (TV network)|Lifetime]]'s documentary ''[[Surviving R. Kelly]]'', his contract was terminated by RCA.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Grady |first=Constance |date=2019-01-18 |title=R. Kelly’s music label has reportedly dropped him |url=https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/1/18/18188618/r-kelly-sony-music-rca-records-dropped-mute |access-date=2022-12-12 |website=Vox |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=RCA Records Cuts Ties With R. Kelly Amid Sexual Abuse Allegations |url=https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/01/23/r-kelly-sexual-abuse-allegations |access-date=2022-12-12 |website=www.wbur.org |language=en}}</ref>

===Other notable events===
[[File:Rachmaninoff.jpg|thumb|right|[[Sergei Rachmaninoff]]'s studio master recordings were believed destroyed in the demolition of RCA Victor's Camden warehouse]]
In the early 1920s, Victor was slow about getting deeply involved in recording and marketing black jazz and vocal blues. By the mid-to-late 1920s, Victor had signed [[Jelly Roll Morton]], [[Bennie Moten]], [[Duke Ellington]] and other black bands, and was becoming very competitive with Columbia and Brunswick, even starting their own V-38000 "Hot Dance" series that was marketed to all Victor dealers. They also had a V-38500 "race" ([[race records]]) series, a 23000 'hot dance' continuation of the V-38000 series, as well as a 23200 'Race' series with blues, gospel and some hard jazz. However, throughout the 1930s, RCA Victor's involvement in jazz and blues slowed down and by the time of the musicians' strike and the end of the war, Victor was neglecting the R&B (race) scene, which is one of the reasons so many independent companies sprang up so successfully.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.elvispresleymuseum.com/RCA_Victor.html |title=RCA Victor |work=elvispresleymuseum |access-date=May 2, 2017 |archive-date=June 11, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170611122601/http://www.elvispresleymuseum.com/RCA_Victor.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the early 1960s, RCA Victor demolished its [[Camden, New Jersey|Camden]] warehouse.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rateyourmusic.com/label/rca_victor |title=Label: RCA Victor |publisher=RateyourMusic.com}}</ref> This warehouse reportedly held four floors' worth of Victor's  catalog dating back to 1902 and vault masters (most of them were pre-tape wax and metal discs), test pressings, lacquer discs, matrix ledgers, and rehearsal recordings. The company retained some of the more important masters (such as those by [[Enrico Caruso]], [[Arturo Toscanini]], [[George Gershwin]] and [[Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)|Jimmie Rodgers]]; why the masters of [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]] apparently were not saved is a mystery), but it is uncertain just how many others were saved or lost. A few days before the demolition took place, some collectors from the US and Europe were allowed to go through the warehouse and salvage whatever they could carry with them for their personal collections. Soon afterward, record collectors and RCA Victor officials watched from a nearby bridge as the warehouse was dynamited, with many studio masters still intact in the building. The remnants were bulldozed into the Delaware River and a pier was built on top of them. In 1973, to celebrate the centenary of Rachmaninoff's birth, RCA decided to reissue his complete recordings on LP; RCA was forced to go to collectors for copies of certain records because their archives were incomplete, as documented in a ''Time'' magazine article.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}