Indie Music: Then, Now, and What's to Come
Navigating indie music's evolution from the 60s to social media's era.

After a long year full of ups, downs, and everything in between, it’s finally December. As we close the year, evaluation is one of the best ways to ensure next year is better. How did indie music do in 2023? Did the industry live up to the hype or was it an underwhelming year? Who were our artists to look out for at the start of the year and how did they do? Then we can begin to look forward.

Who should we look out for in 2024? Are there any newly emerging styles that might blow up in 2024? What can artists do better to enjoy more success? These questions help us improve ourselves for the new year.

That said, I have expanded the focus of this article. I’ll start from the very beginning to see how far we’ve come. Then, I’ll talk about this year before looking to the future.

Then

The roots

Indie music started in the 60s and 70s as an outlet for artists tired of the commercial music being put out by record labels. However, they faced an uphill battle without the deep pockets of the record labels. Still, they continued to make music on their terms. The Spiral Scratch EP released in 1977 by the Buzzcocks was one of the pioneer indie records that helped inspire more and more artists to join the movement.

By the 80s, there was a boom of new indie artists. Once they began to believe a music career was possible without the backing of a record label, the floodgates opened. The Smiths were one of the biggest indie bands to come out of this decade. They pushed beyond the success of their predecessors, further reinforcing the fact that success was possible for independent artists. Until this point, indie artists were mostly rock artists. That changed.

The evolution

By the 90s, indie artists were not only out in full force, they’d begun to form record labels of their own, aptly named indie labels. In 1988, Sub Pop Records, one of the indie labels, signed a band called Nirvana. It took only two years for Nirvana to become a massive success, selling over 30 million copies of their music. Indie music wasn’t just an affront to the big labels now, it was a viable business model for artists.

The Oasis took full advantage of the momentum and nailed number one on the UK album charts with their debut album. Indie music grew exponentially, and by 2012, the US Bureau of Statistics estimated that the number of indie artists had grown by over seventy percent between 2003 and 2012. The arrival of social media then made these numbers look like child’s play. The one ace the big labels still held was worldwide distribution, but social media opened the doors to everyone. The music industry changed forever.

Now

The music industry today is nothing like the 70s and 80s. Everything has changed. The basic rules of music may still be the same, but music is today one of the biggest industries in the world. The business of music has changed completely. In Nigeria, for example, artists are leaving their parent labels to start new ones as soon as they feel their deals aren’t fair enough.

The point is no one is afraid of record labels anymore. Artists are not as ignorant as they used to be decades ago. They want better deals. For example, Rosalia’s first album was released independently, but distributed by Universal. As she built on her success, several labels wanted her, so much that they all collaborated to release an album for her.

So artists are building a fanbase for themselves before partnering with labels for greater coverage. Make no mistake about it, though, the artists no longer need the labels as much as they used to. The labels no longer own the artists, they work together now.

At the start of 2023, Okayplayer released a list of seven predictions for the year. They predicted that more artists would embrace the DIY way and hack social media more than ever before. They were spot-on with these two. Even signed artists are embracing the DIY way of making music more and more. Charlie Puth, for example, started a whole YouTube series taking viewers through his creation process.

This year, the trend of indie music penetrating the mainstream continued. Rosalia, for example, is almost textbook indie, the same as Billie Eilish. Yet they’re both signed to major labels. It seems that indie and pop music, once complete opposites, might soon become indistinguishable from one another.

My Predictions: Continuity vs reinvention

One of the predictions from Okayplayer was that Web 3 won’t go away. I want to take that a step further and say Web 3 will grow more and more popular in 2024. The one thing Web 3 must improve is the user experience. NFTs, crypto, and Web 3 in general feel so complex to understand for regular music lovers who just want to enjoy songs from their favorite artists. If that can be fixed, the prospects look very good.

Another prediction was that artists would band together to fight for better conditions. So far, that also seems to have been a spot-on call. Big companies like Spotify have come under fire for their payment formulas and while the controversial policies keep rolling out, the noise is also getting louder. I think this battle cooking up will eventually boil over to something bigger where one side will have to give in.

Speaking of fights between streaming platforms and artists, I also think social media platforms will become the new kings of creator payouts. We’ve already seen platforms like Twitter start paying creators, and I only expect the trend to continue. Social media will become the single most important part of an artist’s career. With the arrival of technologies like Meta, artists could eventually organize festivals via social media.

Final Thoughts

One thing is for sure. Indie music, by this time next year, will be much different from what we have today. Whether through technology or the genres, things keep changing. This year was proof of that. We have become so accustomed to change that it is now the norm.

For you, this is the one question you must answer. What part will you play in the next evolution of indie music? Your success as an indie artist might depend on your answer.