ADA are riding high with strong results across multiple genres.
“We’re not in the hits business,” insists MD Howard Corner, speaking in our new edition. “We’re not all about those records.”
Nevertheless, the hits certainly keep on coming for Warner Music Group’s distribution and label services company.
In a Music Week exclusive for the latest issue, we meet Corner and general manager Alice Frost to explore the secrets to their unique way of working records from all genres.
Supporting independent artists, Warner Music’s ADA has seen success with The K’s, whose album Pretty On The Internet went to No.1 in August last year. The album has UK sales to date of 36,039 units (Official Charts Company) and ADA and LAB Records are now targeting global growth with Warner Music.
ADA has also overseen the global impact of breakout rapper EsDeeKid, who amassed over one billion streams and has cracked the US and UK charts.
The Liverpudlian’s top-selling single is Rico Ace collaboration Phantom (356,036), followed by 4 Raws (252,791 units) and Century (243,218 units) – all of them reached the Top 20. Meanwhile, EsDeeKid’s album Rebel (123,663 units) peaked at No.8 in January.
It follows a run of rap success for ADA including Music Week cover star Nemzzz.
Another jewel in ADA’s crown is UK-based (and BRITs-eligible) Sonny Fodera, whose Top 5 hit with Jazzy and DOD, Somedays (1,147,984 sales), became the best-selling British independent track of last year. Meanwhile, the company is also tapping into the heavy music boom with President.
Here, Howard Corner and Alice Frost share insights on five big campaigns from independent acts…
You announced a JV with The K’s, Warner Music and LAB Records in February. Is that a good example of how you plan to keep moving forward?
HC: “It’s the first time we’ve done a deal like this and full kudos to the band for recognising the role we played. Our work with The K’s is just a great example of our partnership approach. You only get that deeply involved with a lot of trust, a strong rapport and a very strong partnership. And actually, and I’m sure Mark [Orr, LAB Records, founder] wouldn’t mind me saying this, it was actually ADA who found the band and took it to LAB. It was Nick Sheldon, who was a digital sales manager. Nick saw the band, told me about them and I said, ‘Tell Mark.’ He called Mark up and said, ‘I’ve seen this band. If we get this right, it will bring a No.1 album.’”
AF: “And now the success we’ve had with this partnership has led to a new joint venture for their next album [due in 2027]. ADA will be working it in the UK, it will be A&R-ed by Atlantic and then, globally, will be worked by more frontline teams.”
Take us inside the No.1 campaign – how did you pull it off at a time when it’s so hard for guitar music to cut through?
AF: “We worked really closely with LAB, who are absolutely brilliant. The K’s are a really interesting band because it was very much the grassroots, live side that brought them to the forefront, and they have such a rabid core fanbase that swelled and developed the more touring they did. So in a way, it felt like quite an old-school campaign, which was really, really exciting. It relied less on the online and short-form side – everything that you think you need to have to run a successful campaign nowadays. The team absolutely loved working it; they felt so passionately about it. And the band are incredible – they work so hard and really take on recommendations. They were sponges for everything that we were suggesting. It’s also the kind of audience who want a real, physical product to have on their shelves – or should I say products, because they will buy more than one format.”
You’re also tapping into the recent heavy music boom with President, who you’re working with Sleep Token’s manager Ryan Richards on…
AF: “President was a really exciting one because it was a new artist and, you know, there was this air of mystery around it. There was also Ryan, who obviously has incredible proven success with this music, and the artist themselves were really incredible at setting out strategy and creative. It was visually so impactful, so immediate, which was a big part of the success. We released their debut EP, and in six months it did well over 70 million global streams. Also, 79% of their streams are from outside the UK.”
Turning to dance music, what has made your partnership with Sonny Fodera so successful?
AF: “ADA has had a long-standing partnership with Sonny, and year-on-year it has just continued to drive exponential growth. His catalogue is vast; he’s been releasing for 15 years, and last year was by far his biggest. He did about half a billion streams in 2025. With 64% of his streams coming from outside the UK, he is absolutely one of the world’s biggest independent DJ/producers and sells out huge headline shows. Growing the artist proposition with DJs can be hard because they’re a bit faceless, but Sonny has definitely transcended that.”
EsDeeKid is another huge ADA story, and followed on from a run of UK rap breakouts you’ve been involved with. What was the key to his explosion?
AF: “It’s been so exciting to watch it unfold, his very fast ascendance. All credit to Lizzy Records. Sincere heads up Lizzy and manages various artists as well, and he’s very much been the champion for this alt-rap era. When we started working with him a few years back, we weren’t necessarily getting the support from DSPs and people weren’t really seeing it as something that was going to explode in the way that it did. We were really lucky to work with this label from the outset. EsDeeKid is now a global story, he’s the biggest new rapper in the world. Obviously it started in the UK, in Liverpool, but it transcended borders very quickly. It was so great to see this audience, this subculture, come together so quickly. His consumption is now 84% ex-UK and the album has over a billion streams.”
HC: “We were able to move very fast because of our relationships with our partners. That’s super-helpful when something catches fire like this. We’ve been there with Central Cee and other projects where we were able to mobilise and turn it into a global story.”
What is the secret to breaking UK rap acts?
AF: “It’s so hard for UK rap to break outside of this country. We also released the Nemzzz album [Rent’s Due] last March and it went to No.6 here, which was incredible. It has done close to 300 million streams. We’ve worked with Nemzzz for a number of years and it was amazing to watch him develop because it wasn’t a big team – just him and his manager, Alex Omisesan. It was one where we really went in across the board, with strategy, creative, digital, socials – a bit of everything. They did such an incredible job to build him as an artist and now he’s one of the hottest rappers. His consumption is 84% ex-UK, which is incredible to see.”
HC: “We’ve now had six rappers [AJ Tracey, Bugzy Malone, Central Cee, Stormzy, EsDeeKid and Nemzzz] through here that have done over a billion streams.”
What is it about ADA that works for UK rap?
HC: “You’ve got to go back to when it was kicking off again, say around 2016, which wasn’t the first time around either. Earlier on, let’s call it grime 1.0, those artists got major label deals and were having hits because it was culturally hot. Then when it wasn’t, those artists were no longer getting signed. So for the next wave, they had to work out how to do it themselves. By this point, streaming had taken off and you had a range of playlists. Artists were also able to speak directly to their audience via social media and do their own marketing. So if you don’t need someone to do your creative or marketing and you can just do a distribution deal, there’s no reason to sign to a label. We had some early streaming successes with Macklemore and Major Lazer, so we were able to talk to other artists and explain what we did. We got in early. That’s our approach: to work with people we think will be a good fit.”
Subscribers can read the full ADA interview here.
PHOTO: Paul Harries
