There’s by no means been a greater time to be an impartial artist, however how artists can leverage that energy — and what “impartial” even means as we speak — is extra complicated than ever.
This month, the CD Child group attended the American Affiliation of Unbiased Music’s (A2IM) Indie Week — the world’s largest convention and networking occasion devoted to impartial music. In the course of the week, our president Molly Neuman joined Jay Gilbert of the Your Morning Espresso podcast to debate her outlook on artist independence in 2026.
Right here’s what Molly needed to say.
The transcript beneath has been edited for brevity and readability. You possibly can hearken to the total podcast at Your Morning Espresso.
Jay: The phrase impartial used to imply one thing particular — no main label involvement. At present, artists on main distributed offers name themselves indie. Does the phrase nonetheless have a that means in 2026?
Molly: Completely. Independence remains to be a robust time period. However the nuance of what it means to be an impartial artist is difficult, and folks twist themselves up making an attempt to deal with it like a binary, which I don’t suppose it’s.
Jay: CD Child has processed billions of {dollars} in royalties. What does the information let you know about what truly separates artists who construct sustainable careers from those that don’t?
Molly: It’s onerous to know that there are any particular indicators or traits, however there are lots of people who haven’t one stream on Spotify — and clearly that’s reflective of a number of dynamics within the trade — there’s a number of music that no one is listening to. However that’s why we’re specializing in artists who need to be critical about their profession.
Just lately, we’ve been advising artists on methods to attain their first 1,000 streams on Spotify. And that entails taking the primary steps to activate your neighborhood and develop into eligible for monetizing your music on the platform. We’re centered on serving to artists construct the core elements of a launch pad.
Jay: The place do you suppose indie artists have essentially the most significant leverage?
Molly: For our rising artists, I feel it’s about beginning robust. And I don’t suppose that’s a distinct outlook from if you and I began our music careers. Artists nonetheless have to faucet into those who care. And meaning A) making music there’s an viewers for and B) actually making an attempt to attach folks to it.
Artists could make that occur in any variety of methods — busking on the nook, reserving reveals, discovering different artists you need to play with, or working as much as a viral second. However I don’t suppose any of that’s simple to fabricate and I feel that’s perhaps the place a number of the mistaken vitality is targeted proper now.
Jay: You simply touched on the significance of beginning with nice music that’s genuine. It jogged my memory of one thing that Jonathan Daniel as soon as mentioned — “in case you give me an ideal track, my job is straightforward. When you give me a superb track, my job is not possible.” Contact on {that a} bit extra.
Molly: I feel a lot of the companies in our area, whether or not it’s distribution platforms, platforms like Bandcamp — even Spotify — we’re all fighting the truth that there may be a lot extra music than there are followers to hearken to it. And now I feel we’re complicating that with among the new points [like AI slop].
Jay: Not each artist aspires to be a celebrity, and even make a dwelling taking part in music and there’s nothing mistaken with that. What in regards to the artists that simply need to write, document, and launch their artwork?
Molly: After I began making music, within the earliest days, the industrial prospects have been completely not there. We had no considered earning money as artists. We needed to hang around with our pals, play reveals with one another, and make up songs, which had an vitality to it. In some unspecified time in the future, somebody was keen to pay $100 or $500 for a present and we began to see some royalties — and that felt shocking, not just like the motivation, as a result of we have been coming from a particular anti-corporate tradition underground.
Now, wanting on the trade, now we have some actually proficient children who would possibly go to music enterprise faculty or develop into performers or composers and typically they appear to need shortcuts to industrial success. There aren’t any actual shortcuts.
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