The label has released multiple genres of music, including pop, classical, rock, hip hop, afrobeat, electronic, R&B, blues, jazz, and country.

Its roster includes SZA, Britney Spears, Shakira, Chris Brown, Justin Timberlake, Childish Gambino, Pink, Doja Cat, H.E.R., ASAP Rocky, Foo Fighters, Young Nudy, Normani, Khalid, Becky G, Chance the Rapper, Wolf Alice, D'Angelo, Wizkid, G-Eazy, Elle King, Ferg, Nardo Wick, Bryson Tiller, Jazmine Sullivan, YNW BSlime, Amy Shark, Ateez, Lucky Daye, Kane Brown, Teezo Touchdown, Jade, Tool, Sleepy Hallow, Latto, Skillibeng, Isabel LaRosa, Lisa, Rex Orange County, Yebba, Kygo, The Strokes, Kirk Franklin, Steve Lacy, Alex G, Tate McRae, Tems, Victoria Monét, Davido, Mark Ronson, Pentatonix, Kaytranada, Lizzy McAlpine, Skepta, Cage the Elephant, Miguel, Grizzly Bear, Cam, Nao, Blood Orange, Flo Milli, Kevin Abstract, Kenny Mason, and Fousheé, among others.

The format was a commercial failure, partly because the new Victrolas with two-speed turntables designed to play these records were exorbitantly priced, the least expensive model retailing for $395.00 in the depths of the Great Depression.

[18] By the time RCA Victor unveiled it, the 45 was now competing with the 10-inch and 12-inch 331⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl "LP" (Long Play) discs introduced by arch-rival Columbia Records in the early summer of 1948.

The use of vinyl, which was much more expensive than the gritty shellac compound normally used for 78s, was actually cheaper because of the smaller diameter and greatly reduced bulk of the new records, which required very little raw material.

These disruptive "side breaks", a nuisance long familiar to listeners of album sets of classical and operatic 78 rpm records, were minimized by an extremely fast automatic record-changing mechanism that was a core feature of RCA Victor's 45 players.

The edition of Billboard magazine dated April 11, 1953, announced a new RCA Victor subsidiary label, its first to use independent distribution and was nameless when it was first revealed.

There were additional stereo tests in December, again in the Manhattan Center, this time with Pierre Monteux conducting members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

In February 1954, RCA Victor made its first commercial stereophonic recordings, taping the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Charles Münch, in a performance of The Damnation of Faust by Hector Berlioz.

Initially, RCA used RT-21 quarter-inch tape recorders (which ran at 30 inches per second), wired to mono mixers, with Neumann U-47 cardioid and M-49/50 omnidirectional microphones.

[27][28] RCA Victor issued several spoken word albums in the 1950s and 60s, notably the soundtracks of the films Richard III,[29] A Man for All Seasons and The Taming of the Shrew,[30] as well as complete versions of the National Theatre of Great Britain stage productions of Othello (starring Laurence Olivier) and Much Ado About Nothing (starring Maggie Smith, who also played Desdemona in the Olivier Othello).

RCA began releasing quadraphonic vinyl recordings in the United States in February 1973, in the CD-4 format developed by its former subsidiary, the Victor Company of Japan (JVC), and made commercially practical by Quadracast Systems Inc. (QSI).

Nipper was once again widely used in RCA newspaper and magazine advertisements and sales literature, as well as store displays and promotional items such as T-shirts caps, posters, coin banks, keychains, watches, coffee mugs and stuffed toys.

During the mid-1980s, RCA Records operated at a deficit, due in part to "overpriced deals" with pop stars including Kenny Rogers and Diana Ross.

RCA's most successful artists during the 1980s included the Eurythmics, Love and Rockets, Joshua Perahia, Rick Astley, Hall & Oates, Dolly Parton, Juice Newton, and Bucks Fizz.

Along with the launch of BNA Records and the expansion of the urban music division, these initiatives would prove to be positive, but RCA was unsuccessful under Galante, ranking 10th in market share in 1995.

By the close of the decade, RCA Records had undergone what Billboard described as a "remarkable turnaround" with the success of artists including Britney Spears, the Dave Matthews Band, Natalie Imbruglia, the Verve Pipe, Robyn, SWV, Christina Aguilera, NSYNC, and Foo Fighters.

[45][46][47] The decade marked a period during which RCA Records had notable success in the pop genre, with Christina Aguilera, Kesha, Pink, Kelly Clarkson and Pitbull scoring multiple #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

[50][51][52][53] During the first half of the decade, RCA released platinum and multi-platinum records by artists including A$AP Rocky, Cage the Elephant, Chris Brown, Kelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus, D'Angelo, Dave Matthews Band, Foo Fighters, G-Eazy, Jennifer Hudson, R. Kelly, Kesha, Khalid, Alicia Keys, Kings of Leon, Miguel, Pentatonix, P!nk, Pitbull, Shakira, Sia, Britney Spears, Bryson Tiller, Justin Timberlake, T-Pain, and Tinashe.

Since 2012, the label has released music by artists including: Kevin Abstract, A$AP Ferg, Becky G, Bleachers, Brockhampton, Bryson Tiller, Cam, G-Eazy, Childish Gambino, Martin Garrix, H.E.R., Normani, Kaytranada, Khalid, Kygo, Tate McRae, Mark Ronson, Sasha Sloan, Jazmine Sullivan, SZA, ZAYN.

[58] In addition to releasing successful albums by Bryson Tiller, Alicia Keys, Fousheé' and Pentatonix in 2020, RCA had #1 records with Doja Cat's "Say So" feat.

[68] In April 2024, Variety announced that the label had signed Thai rapper Lisa, a member of the South Korean girl group Blackpink, for her venture into American solo endeavors.

They also issued two studio cast versions of Show Boat, one with Robert Merrill, Patrice Munsel, and Rise Stevens in 1956, and the other with Howard Keel, Anne Jeffreys, and Gogi Grant in 1958.

Operational from 1928 to 1969, the studio was the site of numerous notable recordings by such artists as Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, Eddie Fisher, Elvis Presley, The Isley Brothers, Charles Mingus, Perry Como, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, Della Reese, and Neil Sedaka.

The studio utilized the acoustical expertise of the David Sarnoff Research Center,[79] Known for recording such acts as the Guess Who, Alice Cooper, and Curtis Mayfield,[80] the facility was closed in 1972.

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.

[83][84][85] In November 2010, Avril Lavigne stated that the long delay of her fourth album, Goodbye Lullaby, was due to "a bunch of bureaucratic BS" related to RCA.

[87][88] 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.

[89] 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 recordings despite not allowing her to release them, leaving her back at square one musically.

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.