Lorde Goes Independent After 17 Years With Universal Music Group

Lorde has been signed to a major label since before she was a teenager. That's over now.

The New Zealand artist revealed in a voice memo to fans on March 18 that her recording contract with Universal Music Group expired in December 2025, ending a deal that stretches back to when she was just 12 years old. It's a quiet but significant shift for one of pop's most distinctive voices — and it raises familiar questions about what happens when the music industry locks in artists before they're old enough to drive.

"I have been in that contract for a very, very long time, in some form of that contract since I was 12 years old, when I signed my first development deal with Universal," she told Rolling Stone. "And I adore them. They're incredible people and I had an amazing experience with them. But the truth is that a 12 year old girl pre-sold her creative output before she knew what it would be like, and before she knew what she was signing away."

Across those 17 years, Lorde released four studio albums under the Universal umbrella — Pure Heroine, Melodrama, Solar Power, and most recently Virgin — building a catalog that spans from viral teenage breakthrough to critically acclaimed pop auteur. She's not bitter about the experience. She's just done with it, at least for now.

“"I needed to take a second to have nothing being bought or sold that comes from me," she told Stereogum.”

"I feel a real hunger for newness and I feel like a new leaf is turning or there's a blank slate that's been presented," she told Stereogum. She also made clear she wasn't swearing off labels entirely, leaving the door open for a future deal — potentially even back with Universal.

The timing works in her favor. Virgin gave her a wave of commercial goodwill heading into this new chapter, and she's been active on the live circuit, headlining Lollapalooza Chile around the same time as the announcement. Meanwhile, the economics of going independent have never looked better. Global recorded music revenues topped $30 billion in 2025, and the infrastructure for artists to release and market music without a traditional label deal has matured dramatically.

Still, Lorde seems less interested in crunching the numbers than in catching her breath. "I needed to take a second to have nothing being bought or sold that comes from me," she told Stereogum.

It's a move that feels less like a dramatic rupture and more like someone finally getting to decide things on their own terms for the first time. Whether she stays independent or re-signs somewhere, the next release will be the first one she makes completely untethered — and that alone makes it worth watching closely.