20 September,2026 09:57 AM IST | Mumbai | Tanisha Banerjee
The Sincerities band decided to go independent after having a horrible experience with a label. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
The music industry has long sold the label deal as the moment an artiste begins to "make it". But for an increasing number of independent musicians, the deal comes with too many hurdles. The new trend is to not sign under a label.
"When I came to Mumbai, I thought I'll find the right people immediately, make music, and release it. I realised that the first step is to find the right people which is not easy. That's the part that took me a lot of time to figure out," says Mumbai-based Punjabi hip-hop artiste Mananveer Singh. When he moved to the city in 2018 without industry connections, he assumed approaching labels was the next step. Instead, he found himself waiting - pitching songs, following up, and trying to convince people that his music was worth backing. Songs he made in 2023 eventually came out in 2024. "If I hadn't waited for labels, trying to convince them to give me a shot for so long, I would have released my music much earlier," he says.
The problem, he found, were the compromises. Labels, he says, could influence everything from the music itself to its marketing and release strategy. "Not every label is helpful to independent artistes. The process is tiring because you don't expect to be paid enough from the labels since you are an upcoming artiste. In a way they take away your freedom; freedom to release the kind of music you want, the kind of marketing you want around that," he explains. So Singh stepped back and began building on his own terms. No wonder then that in early 2026, pop star Kim Petras had publicly requested to be dropped from her label, stating that her finished album Detour had been stalled for six months without a release date or proper backing.
The Sincerities, a four-piece band comprising Tejas Bhalerao, Crizelda Grace, Shreyas Paul, and Anirudh Gupta, had a similar experience. After signing a four-song deal, the band spent nearly two years waiting for the releases to come out. Gaps of four to five months between songs affected their shows, marketing, and momentum. "The label produced the first song and asked for money for the next songs which was not in the contract. So we ended up doing as much as we could since we were still bound by the contract. And we were under the label for the entire two years."
Eventually, they found themselves producing, mixing and mastering some of the tracks themselves anyway. "That's when we realised that there is no point of actually having a different management or a label," says Bhalerao.
That shift towards autonomy also comes at a time when the idea of an artiste having to remain professionally neutral is being questioned. This week, all four supporting acts on Ed Sheeran's Loop tour - Finneas, Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe, and Sheeran's backing band Beoga - withdrew after rapper Macklemore was removed from the tour following his pro-Palestinian remarks.
Sheeran said the decision was made by the promoter and that he wanted to keep his shows outside politics; the departing musicians, however, framed their exits around the freedom to speak without financial power deciding who gets a platform. For independent artistes, then, control can mean owning the direction of a career and deciding what is worth compromising for. "It's about connecting with my audience and the people who have supported me for what I stand. I do not want that freedom to be taken away from me at any point," Singh concludes.
Artiste Ruhdabeh says that their audience grew as they made their content more personal
With around 18,000 Instagram followers, artiste Ruhdabeh has learnt that building a niche does not necessarily mean chasing every trend. "I make mixed content. I do rearrangements of songs. I make covers," they say, but found that their audience grew when they made the content more personal. "I started focussing more on making videos around my original music itself," they say, sharing the process of writing and recording songs. That authenticity also helped them move away from the algorithm. "So then I stopped really looking at what was trending. Over time it can translate into a permanent audience since people who see your work online will also want to see your work live," they say hopefully.
Trishita Maitra, a playback singer, explains that the most difficult part of being independent is marketing herself
When asked what's the biggest challenge of being independent, playback singer, songwriter, and performer Trishita Maitra says, "The marketing. Honestly, that's the only reason why I'd consider a label. But when you release anything through them, you end up signing away most of your rights."
"The actual craft has become the smaller percentage of my life," Maitra says, "All of this admin and content work has ended up taking precedence." Learning to market herself has meant developing an entirely different skill set. "An artiste is not necessarily inherently great at content," she says, "So it's like you are doing two nine-to-five jobs."
Still, she sees a silver lining in having those tools at her disposal. "Music is now democratised and we do have some way of reaching, even if it's just a handful of people, we can create a portfolio of our own today," she says. A label, then, would have to bring something genuinely new. "If they add more than what I'm bringing to the table, then sure," she says. Otherwise, "I would prefer building my own team than hand myself over to a big corporation."
Bassist Alanis Rodrigues explains how she built her career without a label, solely through word of mouth
For bassist Alanis Rodrigues, building a career independently has meant being everywhere - jams, open mics, gigs, and even shows she was not being paid for. "I initially started off by pursuing a bunch of unpaid gigs in order to attract experience and gain attention. Playing at The Wunderkinds at NCPA was one of my major breakthroughs."
The visibility slowly worked its way with social media and word of mouth bringing more work her way. But getting there meant saying yes to almost everything. "As I was starting out as rookie, it is hard to say no to any gig, as any publicity is good publicity. This led to me performing with Shriya Rao at Lollapalooza 2027," she says.
Sanoli Chowdhury, co-founder of Femme Music, says labels were supposed to take financial risks to back artistes they saw potential in
Sanoli Chowdhury, co-founder of Femme Music, sees a record label as a support system. "Labels always started out to help artistes get their music out there. We live in a generation now where labels are only after already well-established artistes." At a profit-driven time, "It is a safer bet to work with an artiste who's already well established."
"We're currently only signing artistes who are completely independent, who haven't really got a foothold in the industry. The first thing I told her was that we don't want to change you. If you wanted to change you, why would we even sign you?" she says of a recently signed artiste, "The artiste has to be comfortable and happy in what they do because we're kind of looking at a long-term thing with everybody."
DJ and producer Shrinit Choupane says putting out content on social media is quite an organic way to grow
Shrinit Choupane constantly balances two careers together as a DJ and a producer. The 23-year-old says, "Strategy wise, it can get a bit overwhelming at times. A little help definitely goes a long way." While a label can offer support, Choupane says finding one that genuinely understands an artiste's sound and wants to build their career matters. "It's very important to find a record label that is willing to push you and your career without trying to rip you off," he advises. In the meantime, social media has opened another route. "The primary way is to put your music out on social media and then just try to capture as much audience as you can organically," he says.
