Campaign Operations
RCA Records
First meeting after a deal is signed. The goal is to assign the team, frame the budget, and distribute the Prep Package so everyone knows who they're working with.
Signing A&R · COO · Creative Lead · Marketing Lead · Audience Dev Lead · Publicity Lead
Music links · Social handles & metrics · Management contact · Affiliations · Previous milestones · Upcoming release plans · Upcoming tentpoles · Suggested team/pod reps (draft)
Walk through the Prep Package. First impressions from the room.
Lock the team. Who's the campaign lead? Who's the A&R admin? Who's creative?
Transparent conversation about resource level — High / Mid / Dev. Not the exact number, just the tier.
Dossier distributed to pod. Pre-Kickoff scheduled. Artist Brief assigned to Signing A&R.
Pod assignments confirmed in Airtable → dossier distributed to pod → Pre-Kickoff scheduled within 7-10 days
The artist and management get heard. This is not the label telling the artist what to do — it's the artist telling the label who they are, what they want, and what's coming.
Signing A&R · Pod Leads · Artist & Management
Archetype, aspirations, creative references, tentpoles. Let the artist talk.
What does management already have in motion? Tour? Content? Features? Collabs?
Confirm A&R will complete the Artist Brief in Airtable based on this conversation. This triggers the Kickoff.
Artist Brief completed in Airtable → triggers Kickoff scheduling + packet distribution
The biggest meeting in the lifecycle. Leadership reviews and pressure-tests the Artist Brief. The room locks narrative, audience, direction, and goals. Passing this gate means the project can go public.
CEO · COO · SVPs (Creative, Marketing, Audience Dev, Publicity) · Pod Leads
A&R presents the brief. Who is this artist? What's the story? What's the audience?
Leadership pushes back. Is the narrative clear? Is the audience real? Is the timeline realistic?
Agree on narrative, audience, goals. Lock the release date if ready. Set workability targets.
Marketing assigned to build the Blueprint (calendar, asset tracker, KPI linkage). Deadline set.
Artist Brief signed off in Airtable → release date locked (or conditional) → unlocks Blueprint stage → artist moves from PLAN to ANNOUNCE
Shape, Then Build: A&R + Creative + Digital lock the story. Marketing builds the system. We don't build what we haven't shaped.
The recurring check-in during ANNOUNCE phase. Are we on track? Is workability moving? Are the marketing beats landing? This is the meeting that feeds the Tuesday Workability Check at the roster level.
A&R Ops · Creative · Audience Dev · Pod Leads
Art, music, clearances. Workability score from Release Runway. Red items only.
Walk through the campaign timeline. Any dates shifting? Any beats missed?
Are pre-saves tracking? Social engagement? Press confirmations? Early signals.
Anything blocked? Anything we need to change? Escalations?
Blocker > 2 weeks → Department Head escalation
KPI misses 2 cycles → COO + A&R Ops notified
Narrative misfire → Immediate escalation to CEO, COO, SVPs, Pod Leads
The final gate check before release. Everything needs to be in position. This is a yes/no meeting — are we ready? If not, what's missing and can it be fixed in 14 days?
Campaign Lead · Ops · whoever owns the open items
Art delivered? Master approved? Samples cleared?
Workability must be >70% to pass this gate.
Pre-save/pre-order live? Video delivered? Press release ready? Smart links built?
Pitches submitted? Playlist targets identified? Editorial confirmed?
Product at distribution center? Retail confirmed? Pre-order street date set?
Radio submitted? Press interviews scheduled? Content calendar live?
All critical items green → artist moves to EXECUTE
Red items remaining → escalate with deadline, or date moves
What happened? What worked? What didn't? What's the sustain plan? This meeting produces the DELIVER recap that feeds into the Friday async wrap.
Campaign Lead · Ops · Analytics · Audience Dev
First-week numbers. Streaming trajectory, playlist adds, chart position, social engagement. How does it compare to projections?
Which marketing beats drove results? What surprised us? What should we repeat?
What fell flat? What do we wish we'd done differently? No blame — just data.
What's the tail strategy? Tour support? Next single? Catalog positioning? How long do we sustain spend?
Post-release recap complete → sustain plan set → learnings documented in Airtable → artist moves to DELIVER (or cycles back to PLAN for next project)