In the modern age of social media and self promotion, there has been a rise in independent artists. Writing their own music, releasing and performing without the backing of a record label, can have added pressures on the workload and versatility of the skills required to be successful. Despite this, more independent artists are flourishing. RAYE is a prime example of this. Splitting from her record label Polydor in 2021 after stating “I’m done being a polite pop star , “I was creating music that then wasn’t seeing the light of day, so in order to actually have music out I had to leave that situation”.She went on to release her independant debut album with great success. With the Telegraph stating “My 21st Century Blues deserves to be listened to from start to finish… an incredible record”. But is this achievable for other independent artists? what qualities and skills are required? What are the pressures that co-inside with independence? and do the perks of independence outweigh the financial backing and contacts a major record label can provide you with?
Despite not needing any formal qualifications, Independent artists require a wide range of skills to thrive in this industry (Jakk Locke, 2018). Certain qualifications could help artists develop these skills. Training in marketing. accounting, live sound and songwriting/ performance skills are just some of the expertise you could receive training in. To learn these wide range of skills a college course (e.g Ex Dip in performance/Production) or degree in Music that includes practical skills modules and extended experience within the degrees could be extremely useful for an independent artist.
UAL, an exam board offering an Extended Diploma in music performance/production state “The qualification has been designed to provide students with the skills, knowledge and understanding necessary to progress to further study and training in a range of music performance and production disciplines.”
However, depending on the age and financial circumstances of the aspiring independent artist, a full time course may not be the answer. Instead, they could partake in online short courses to learn more about specific skills such as accounts or social media marketing. They could also invest in an instrumental teacher who specialises in songwriting and/or performance.
There are lots personal attributes a good independent artist should have and improve on to help them succeed in the industry. Besides performance skills, financial literacy and marketing knowledge.
Recently, I conducted a survey on the importance of different attributes and skills in an independent artist. This was a closed survey and only available to particular musicians that I knew had experience as an independent artist.
I gathered answers from artists such as Mollie Coddlled ( an Lcon graduate and independent artist), Nick Brace ( Artistic Director of Actiontrack – A Charity record company specialising in youth projects), Nick Girone Maddocks (An Independent Country/Folk artist with over 20 years of experience) and Current Leeds Conservatoire Students that have released original music on streaming services.
When asked to rank certain attributes importance for independent artists the respondents overwhelmingly agreed that perseverance was the most important quality required to succeed as an independent artist in this industry.
Interestingly, Independence was ranked the least important in this survey. This could suggest that independent artists still heavily rely on other people and connections in the industry to succeed. It could also imply that artists benefit from collaborating with other creatives to succeed and improve their music and industry skills.*
When asked if the respondents had any other comments about the topic of this survey Mollie Coddled answered with “Perseverance, hard-working attitude, never give up, say yes to every opportunity, be nice to everyone, make good music”. With her top song on Spotify achieving over 160,000 streams, this attitude towards her work looks to be successful. Her response suggests that independent artists require lots of resilience and good communication skills.
Interestingly, Nick Brace focused on the benefits of independence in his comments. “Labels are businesses – not artistic development agencies. In the end they only want profit”. This statement suggests Nick believes independent artists have more creative freedom and space to develop. This belief could be one of the key reasons he founded Actiontrack – a performance company that works with artists at a range of stages in their career. One of their projects “On the record” helps young people to release their own music on a collaborative record and improve their skills in recording, collaboration and songwriting. Another project of theirs is “Next Level”. This is focused on helping more experienced artists improve skills in songwriting, production and new genres of music through masterclasses and workshops. These projects are a prime example of the short courses and education available to independent artists to help improve and widen their skill set without relying on a record company for support.
Artists signed to labels will, depending on the label’s investment size into them, often receive training in performance and work with a social media/marketing team. Tax returns and expenses are also sorted through the company as they are not working as a freelancer. Meaning, signed artists do not need to worry about their financial skills in the same way as an independent artist.
The Universal Music Group job section shows the wide ranges of jobs and support for artists: with jobs such as Creative Content Manager, Marketing Director, Performance Marketing Manager and Advertising Strategist. This sort of expertise in such a range of roles is unlikely to be matched by a singular person. However, Independent artists can still hire a team of people to help them with these tasks, provided they are earning enough income through their craft to employ others. However, this is an added pressure for the indepedendant artist as they have employees reliant on them earning enough income to pay their workers.
A complex element for any releasing artist – but especially an independant – is the contractual, copyright and monetary splits. However, their are organisations to help support artists with these legal issues.
Musicians’ Union provide template contracts for a range of scenarios such as song share agreements and production agreements. These template contracts can help independent artists negate the legal costs of hiring a lawyer to sort splits when releasing collaborative projects. Members of the union can also access legal advice surrounding copyright (e.g if an artist has used a sample from another song) and contracts.
Another organisation that is indispensable to artists – especially independent is PRS. A singular platform that “licences members music for businesses, live performances and recorded products”, “pays royalties” and “ [has] representation societies in over 100 countries to pay members for music use outside of the UK”. Essentially, PRS pays their members for any use of their music whether in a live, streamed or recorded setting allowing musicians to claim their income from these play from one place. PRS state “We’re committed to protecting the value of music and ensuring our members’ rights are represented”.
Despite helpful organisations such as PRS and Musicians Union many independent artists can struggle from stress due to range and volume of tasks they have to juggle on a regular basis. A common problem created from this stress is digital burnout.
According to Christopher Wares (Assistant Chair of Music Business at Berklee College) digital Burnout “refers to the mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion as a result of prolonged stress and pressure to constantly create social media content” . As apps such as Tiktok and Instagram, increasingly become the main platforms for independent artists to promote their music and grow their fan base their has become an increasing pressure on artists to consistently post new and interesting social media content. This constant pressure to create and find new ideas can be draining and time consuming for artists that are already having to organise their accounts, contracts and training while simultaneously working on their music.
In spite of the mental wellbeing effects that social media can have on an artist, content creation can be extremely useful to help promote and grow a fanbase. To put this to the test I set up a TikTok music account and posted a short clip of an original song of mine while the account still had zero followers. The aim of this, was to see the outreach possible without payment for marketing or previous engagement from followers on social media. Within 24 hours, the 60 second clip had gained 1,400 views. For a new account with no previous followers or profile views this was quite a large number of user engagement compared to the amount of people you could reach at a local open mic.
While this experiment is very dependant on the content posted and algorithm of TikTok, it does demonstrate that it is very much possible for independent artists to rapidly increase their online engagement from utilising social media tools such as Tiktok. With some content refinement and use of trends is very plausible that an artist could grow their audience rapidly.
However, views do not immediately mean income. Once independent artists have built a fanbase, they need to work on income streams such as tours, merchandise and sales/streams. However, creating a profit out of these streams of income can be difficult due to:
- the rising costs to run tours domestically and globally (UK Music, 2025)
- recent political events such as BREXIT and Trump’s Administration creating complications in obtaining/funding visas to tour outside of the UK (ISM,2016) (Guardian, 2025)
- A decline in grassroot venues across the UK (Music Venue Trust, 2024)
- An increase in labour/material costs ( in relation to merchandise production/sales) (Office of National Statistics, 2025)
- Lack of profit from streams on platforms such as Spotify compared to physical music sales ( which are in decline) (CMA,2022)
Another issue many independent music artists experience is “unresolved identity work” ( Beech, 2016). This is the ongoing process of developing ‘yourself an artist’ fueled by factors such as: the need to be ‘original’, reach a wider fan base, evolve with the ever changing culture/trends and creative development. Professor Nic Beech, Salford University (previously Dundee University), published a paper with three other professors in 2016 on “Identity-in-the-work and musicians’ struggles: the production of self-questioning identity work” and found that independent artists often struggle with “identity stress”, balancing “artistic purity” with commercial success and the ongoing need to evolve as an artist – stating that identity work is not “solved” impling it is ever evolving and never completed.
He found that methods such as reflective work, and wellbeing focus could support independent musicians with their identity work and assigned different methods of coping with pressures dependant on the task. For example, “Seeking out the limits of the self, emotionally as well as creatively” suggesting artists should consciously consider the metal and physical strains they are pressuring themselves with and attempt to balance their daily tasks in coordination with this.
As an Independent artist it is crucial to consciously evolve and edit you work flow and goals to succeed and sustain your career. It is important to regularly improve your skills in marketing, social media and streaming as the industry develops. Despite the contemporary issues of the cost of living crisis, political circumstances and digital burnout, the current industry and culture lends itself to independent artists who are looking to reach wider audiences without the backing of a record company. Seizing this opportunity without increasing the workload to an unsustainable level is a difficult balance but with “artist’s identity” never “solved” this does allow for change and balence as your career progresses. Resilience, Confidence and Communication are key qualities that should be at the heart of any successful independent artist. “Say yes to every opportunity” – Mollie Coddled, find balance between creating and admin and stay true to your “artist’s identity’”.
References:
Actiontrack (no date). https://open.spotify.com/artist/1dJPEKneaC5XKF9KBdWroP.
BBC News (2021) Raye and Polydor split after claims record label wouldn’t release debut album. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-57901301.
Beech, N. et al. (2016) ‘Identity-in-the-work and musicians’ struggles: the production of self-questioning identity work,’ Work Employment and Society, 30(3), pp. 506–522. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017015620767.
Business insights and impact on the UK economy: 23 January 2025 – Office for National Statistics (no date). https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/businessinsightsandimpactontheukeconomy23january2025.
Careers @ Universal Music Group (no date). https://www.umusiccareers.com/gethired.
Cat Woods. Andrew Perry. Neil McCormick Music Critic. Michelle Kambasha (2023) ‘Shania Twain deals in pop Clichés, Robert Forster faces family tragedy – the week’s best albums The Queen of country-pop Sounds Insincere, Raye sticks a stiletto to the patriarchy, Robert Forster urges his wife to soldier on,’ The Telegraph, 3 February. https://elegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/best-albums-week-shania-twain-raye-robert-forster/.
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Horton, A. (2025) ‘Lord Buffalo drummer removed from plane and detained by US border control,’ The Guardian, 14 May. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/may/14/lord-buffalo-drummer-us-border-control.
Locke, J. (2019) ‘The independent musician career path,’ www.academia.edu [Preprint]. https://www.academia.edu/38386186/The_Independent_Musician_Career_Path.
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Next level project – ActionTrack (no date). https://www.facebook.com/Actiontrack.org.uk/photos/as-a-part-of-our-next-level-weekend-next-year-we-will-be-hosting-a-community-mus/1265349945611138/ (Accessed: December 12, 2025).
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Parys, B. (2022) How social media burnout affects musicians. https://www.berklee.edu/berklee-now/news/how-social-media-burnout-affects-musicians.
PRS for Music: royalties, music copyright and licensing (no date). https://www.prsformusic.com/.
Song Share Standard Specimen Agreement | Song Share Contract Template (no date). https://musiciansunion.org.uk/legal-money/job-contracts-and-business-agreements/standard-contracts/song-share-agreement.
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Trust, M.V. (2025) Music Venue Trust Launch 2024 Annual report. https://www.musicvenuetrust.com/2025/01/music-venue-trust-launch-2024-annual-report/.
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Underhill, J., Naomi McCarthy, and Deborah Annetts (2023) Paying the price: The sixth ISM Brexit report, ism.org. https://www.ism.org/images/images/Paying-The-Price-The-Sixth-ISM-Brexit-Report-WEB.pdf.
Use of Scribbler – Harvard Reference Generator to generate format of references.
Independent Artists in the Music Industry – Survey Results:
Independent Artists in the Music Industry.xlsx
*Survey Analysis:
This was a closed survey with only a small pool of respondents. This was purposeful as the aim was to use the answers anecdotally rather than to analyse large amounts of data. I contacted artists that I knew had experience as an independent artist and used the survey as a ‘mini interview’. The results should not be used as an indication for the experience of all independent artists and rather a personal account of these creatives’ experiences and opinions.
