Article: https://variety.com/2026/music/news/lorde-independent-artist-contract-universal-expired-1236692807/
Posted by mlg1981
Article: https://variety.com/2026/music/news/lorde-independent-artist-contract-universal-expired-1236692807/
Posted by mlg1981
24 Comments
I keep seeing people say the label dropped her but this sounds like her contract was just up?
Tale as old as time
Record labels have always been predatory and it’s good that more artists are being open about it. Wtf should a 12 year old know about record deals and contracts?
Iām torn on this. What are the odds she would be as successful and wealthy if she refused to sign any deal like this?
How is that legal?
Here is a thing. She has a quite dedicated fandom that hopefully would let her survive as independent artist without massive budget for promotion. But Iām a little worried that even so she still can end up like Halsey with that one experimental album.
sheās such a š
Not me only just realising she was a kid when she released Royals.
I canāt wait until more artists do this, in the future hopefully these predatory labels will be all gone and it will just be artists sharing what they want. I canāt imagine the things they go through and all the great music weāve lost in the name of profit š¤¢
Boohoo, poor me. Forgotten
She look like she wearing someone elseās face
I feel like this is going to become more common with the way labels restrict artists speech
Itās a good business decision on her part. She now gets to assume all the risk, risk lessened by the platform achieved by all her previous work with industry professionals, to now reap all of the rewards going forward.
Yes as a child she had no idea how predatory the business is, but sheās now in a privileged position because of it and has the kind of fame a 12 year old could only ever dream of. Fame that they would never ever have achieved without label assistance, nepotism or both.
College students do this every year. Itās talked about much more now than it was in the 1990ās when the student loan industry was the Wild West.
I’m confused even after reading the article. She signed one, single contract at the age of 12 that locked her in for 20 years? Not even Disney has that type of hold on artists. Something isn’t adding up here.
A side note, the image here is taken from triple j. If youāre looking for that content please wait a day, the triple j staff and all of ABC staff in Australia are on strike today.
I think sheāll end up at a major label again, I wouldnāt be surprised if like Charli she ends up at the same label. In comparison to Charli and Halsey who both ended up signing for a major label, after their initial deal ended. She never seem to suffer or hint at any mistreatment and seemed to part on really good terms. I think unless you really suffered under a major label like Tinashe or Raye, the luxury of having the label to fund and promote your music is too good for a lot of artists to pass up.
That’s rough.
She was 12 when she got signed?? š²
Why even sign a 12 year old?! I love Lorde but a 12 year old has nothing to offer over an experienced musician with autonomy
Iām honestly not shocked. From Pure Heroin, Melodrama, Solar Power & Virgin each release has gradually gotten worse. Virgin was just plain bad. She also seems hard to work with ādonāt answer the phone if itās the label or the radioā.
I can see why from a labels perspective you just wouldnāt want her on the books.
Iām in two minds about this.
Yes , record labels are predatory in nature and sign artists in bad deals. Sometimes they will sign an artist into a bad deal and then purposefully sabotage their career to stop them from interfering with another artist (Normani – allegedly).
But at the same time, I donāt think Lorde would be successful without her label. She is considered by many to be the original āindustry plantā.
So I donāt know. The solution is to probably raise more awareness about how a lot of these singers are actually in huge debt to record labels so younger artists are more prepared on what to expect from them.
**Exactly** why fight back against people who assert artists know damn well what they signed up for. Thatās just a lazy and improper justification for participating in vitriolic groupthink launched against artists for dumb shit, as if weāre not all painfully imperfect.