Last week, more musicians are releasing their music

Last week, American singer Lauren-Spencer Smith broke into the top five of the UK Singles Chart with her love ballad Fingers Crossed.

Like Olivia Rodrigo's Driver's License released last year, Smith's song is a sad lament over the end of a relationship that went viral on TikTok before becoming a mass hit. But there's one significant difference: While Rodrigo has signed a deal with the world's biggest record label, Universal Music, Smith has no record deal at all.

Instead, their music is distributed by an American service called TuneCore, which places their songs on services like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube for a flat fee. Smith retains ownership of his lead recordings and receives 100% rewards when his songs are played.

To be so successful as an independent artist is "absolutely crazy," he said.

"I felt like doing something like this, I needed a big label behind me, and I needed an engine of people in marketing on a budget... but the fact of the matter was we didn't spend a dime on marketing this song and did it. Now." what did he do.

Kylie Minogue's latest album, Disco, was released on her Darenote label. Dave and the Little Sims, who fought Adele and Ed Sheeran at this year's Brit Awards, are the sole owners of their music. And last year's Mercury Prize went to Arlo Parks, who is signed to small indie label Transgressive. "Independent music is just as important and continues to grow every year," he told the shortly after receiving the award.

"[The trophy] is the fact that you don't need a costly studio to make good music - and you can be yourself, and people will accept you for it." Spencer-Smith's manager, David Ehrlich, even hinted that significant labels could derail his success.

"Often, we don't want to base an artist's career on the availability of other people or their agenda," he says, "and fortunately, independent publishing mechanisms now allow that."