Let’s go back in time for a bit: The year is 2005, and Scott Borchetta, a former radio promoter turned independent record label founder, is standing on a red carpet with Taylor Swift. Scratch the image of the $240 million superstar from your mind. Right now, she’s just a teenaged singer/songwriter from Pennsylvania with a guitar and enough talent to grab Borchetta’s attention and a record deal on his fledgling Big Machine label. She’s not even invited to this party, where industry mainstays waltz by in designer gowns and tuxedos, grinning for flashing bulbs and fielding interviews from eager reporters.

We now know that Swift will eventually become the name and red-lipsticked face behind mega hits like “Shake It Off” and “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” but at this point, Borchetta and precious few others (namely his wife and creative director, Sandi Spika Borchetta, and his general manager, Andrew Kautz) see this potential.

Still, Borchetta is not deterred. “Trust me,” he tells one reporter as he tries to strong-arm some publicity for his newest signee, “a year from now, you’re going to wish you’d done this interview.”

Borchetta was right, of course. During the next 10 years, Swift would smash one industry record after another, becoming an international sensation. Fans who have followed Swift’s career know her as an artist who takes calculated risks that seem to pay off time and time again (see her beef against Apple Music’s early artist royalty structure that caused the media giant to quickly shift course — and snap up Swift as a celebrity endorser), and for that reason alone, she is perfectly at home at Big Machine.

Not surprisingly, Swift’s ascent greatly benefited Big Machine. But one successful artist doesn’t necessarily equate to a successful label. And if Swift’s part of the Big Machine Label Group story is common knowledge, what’s less known is how the company has managed to stay on top.

Country music is at the heart of Nashville’s tourism draw, and Big Machine is one of the biggest local players helping shape the city’s signature brand. The label is often heralded as a homegrown success story for Nashville’s famed Music Row, an independent outfit excelling alongside the industry giants.

Not your average label

Big Machine’s offices are like nothing else you’ll find on Music Row. There are fur-covered chairs and chandeliers that look like they’ve been plucked from a “Game of Thrones” set. On the building’s ground floor, a “vibe room” with low-slung sofas and dim lighting provides a hip alternative to the standard-issue conference room just above it. The entire aesthetic — meticulously designed by Spika Borchetta, who has since been promoted to Big Machine’s senior vice president of creative — quickly lets visitors know to expect anything other than the status quo.

But there is a caveat to Big Machine’s nonconformity: “We don’t rebel just to rebel,” Scott Borchetta said. “But we’re always going to ask a question, because if we don’t understand something, we want to know why. ‘Why did you decide to do that?’ ‘What information do you have?’ ‘What inspired you?’ And the worst thing you can ever say is, ‘Well, this is how we’ve always done it.’ That means opportunity.”

While Borchetta is certainly the fearless leader at Big Machine, the company culture is one of collaboration, not creative dictatorship.

“Scott is unique in that he is the founder and CEO of one of the most successful small businesses in the music industry, but he surrounds himself with people that he expects to not just say ‘yes,’” said Kautz, now Big Machine’s chief operating officer. “He challenges us to shoot holes in the big and crazy ideas, as well as complement them with our own ideas. If it just can’t work, he is the first to say it was a mistake, and we pivot.”

And not all ideas are birthed in senior-level meetings. “It doesn’t matter who comes up with the idea,” Borchetta said. “It can’t be about me, or just the handful of top executives. Then we will make the mistakes that we’ve tried so hard not to make, and that other big companies have made. We just look for people who are passionate about this, to begin with, and it’s great when you get a bunch of 21-year-olds in here, nipping at your heels, and going, ‘Did you think of this?’”

“Disruption” is what they call this process, and in honor of the company’s 10-year anniversary last fall, they emblazoned hats, hoodies and T-shirts with the tagline, “10 Years of Disruption.” That merchandise is, of course, available online, but fans also can pick it up at the Big Machine retail store on Third Avenue. What started as a pop-up store during the 2015 CMA Music Festival was such a hit that it is now a permanent part of the downtown landscape — and it’s also a uniquely orchestrated way to increase artist-fan interaction and leverage additional revenue streams.

The store sells vinyl records as collector’s items, plenty of artist merchandise and an entire line of apparel (for adults, kids and pets) designed by Spika Borchetta to raise awareness and money for Big Machine’s “Music Has Value” fund. Big Machine then distributes those funds to nonprofits “which support those who make music, aspire to make music and access and appreciate music.”

Bringing together artists and writers

Despite the marketing moves and philanthropy efforts, ultimately, everything Big Machine does goes back to the music.

Big Machine’s earliest artist signings were, like Swift, singer/songwriters to whom Borchetta bequeathed nearly all creative control. But when it was time to hire someone who could take a more involved role in guiding the projects of new artists, Borchetta knew exactly who to call: artists and repertoire veteran Allison Jones, who previously worked with Borchetta at the now defunct DreamWorks Nashville label.

“When Scott believed in something, he fought for it at all levels,” said Jones, Big Machine’s senior vice president of A&R, the division responsible for finding and developing talent. “He’s always been a forward thinker, an innovator and, honestly, a trailblazer. That term is overused, but he really was.”

As with other 21st century A&R execs, Jones regularly scours social media for the next hot artist or songwriter, but she also has an advantage that her contemporaries don’t.

“The unique thing about our creative world here at Big Machine is that publishing and A&R work in the same building,” Jones explained. “This is my seventh record label, and that’s never existed at any other label where I’ve worked.”

This unparalleled proximity gives Jones day-to-day access to Mike Molinar, vice president and general manager of Big Machine Music, the label’s publishing company. “Mike literally works next to me, and he oversees all of the songwriters and the day-to-day business that goes into the publishing world, and I oversee the day-to-day A&R world,” Jones said. “But our worlds morph. I rely on them to look for talent, and they rely on me to help look for songwriters.”

More than country

Obviously, this in-house synergy isn’t the only way Big Machine breaks tradition in scouting talent. According to Borchetta, his stint as a mentor on Fox Network’s singing competition show “American Idol” was never about his own face time. The end game, he said, was always to treat the show like an artist-development boot camp — one that unfolded in real time, in front of millions of weekly viewers.

With that in mind, the stars may have aligned for Borchetta and Big Machine when Trent Harmon was named winner of the 15th, and final, season of “Idol.” The Mississippi-born crooner has distinct country roots, but after flowing effortlessly between multiple genres on the show (he nailed performances of songs by singer/songwriter Sia and R&B/pop icon Justin Timberlake, among others), he proved that his star may shine bigger than Nashville. And that’s exactly what Borchetta loves most about him.

“The genre that we’re going in for my new album hasn’t necessarily been defined,” Harmon said. “When there’s no exact blueprint to follow, you don’t have to reference other artists. You don’t have to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to make an album like this.’ … It works hand-in-hand with Big Machine, as they are usually ahead of the curve in the music game.”

Country music has certainly evolved over the years, and its contemporary sounds incorporate elements from R&B, rock and pop styles. But, for the most part, the operations at Nashville’s biggest labels have remained fairly formulaic.

Not so at Big Machine.

As a long-time fan of the rock band Cheap Trick, Borchetta quickly offered the guys a record deal after learning that they had fallen on hard times. He’s since effectively resurrected the band’s career, landing them a performance spot on the 2016 CMA Awards and helping to secure their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He also signed pop singer/songwriter Laura Marano, who is best known for her starring role on Disney Channel’s tween sitcom “Austin and Ally.”

“While other companies are spending time on policies, budgets and projections,” Kautz said, “we are looking for artists that can deliver music that makes the hair stand up on our arms and gives you goosebumps.”

Borchetta agrees.

“We always say that we want to provide the arena for artists to do their best work, because our job here, on a lot of levels, is really as support staff,” he said. “Especially now, artists are naked to criticism, so we really try to make sure that, in every opportunity, in creation and delivery, they’re protected to do the work they need to do and want to do.”