{"id":104977,"date":"2025-06-23T12:44:49","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T11:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/?p=104977"},"modified":"2025-06-23T12:44:53","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T11:44:53","slug":"indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/","title":{"rendered":"Indie artists are taking over, especially in albums"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Image credit: Clay Banks<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest stats show indies on the rise and making a significant mark in album sales, suggesting great revenue wins for independent artists.<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Independent artists are taking over. At least, that’s what all the data suggests in the last decade. In fact, streaming leaders Spotify<\/a> revealed that independent artists accounted for roughly 50% of their royalty payouts in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we move towards the halfway point of 2025, how is the picture looking globally? Thanks to new data from Luminate<\/a>, we can see that it is actually going really well in a number of different avenues. Independent music accounted for 35% of total music consumption in the U.S. so far this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s more, indie album sales represent an even larger percentage, making up 40% of overall album sales this year to date. This is fantastic news for independent artists, not only showing a vast percentage in the face of major labels, but also taking a huge share of the profitable album sales portion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luminate reveal that, overall, indie labels hold around 35% of the on-demand audio streaming market. However, indies are thriving in genre niches with Country, Latin, Jazz, Dance\/EDM, and rock all surpassing 35% for indie market share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, independent artists are doing incredibly well in Dance and Electronic music where they have a 48% market share for the genre. Closely behind, indies make up 44% of on-demand audio streams for Jazz and 45% of Latin. Country and Rock follow, at 39% and 36% respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"U.S.
image credit: Luminate Data<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, next to all these successes are two genres where it seems indies are finding it hard to find as much success. Audio streams in the U.S. for R&B and Hip-Hop music have been only 26% indie this year so far. Pop is an even harder genre for indies to crack, with just 16% of pop streams made on independent music – however, indie sensibilities often steer independent artists away from a solid pop genre definition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haley Jones, Head of Independents at Luminate Data, writes: “While hip-hop and pop still dominateoverall share, the fact that independent artists in these four other genres command nearly two-fifths of all streaming traffic highlights their continued growth.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest stats show indies on the rise and making a significant mark in album sales, suggesting great revenue wins for independent artists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":104980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[1038,2443],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIndie artists are taking over, especially in albums - RouteNote Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The latest stats show indies on the rise and making a significant mark in album sales, suggesting great revenue wins for independent artists.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Indie artists are taking over, especially in albums - RouteNote Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The latest stats show indies on the rise and making a significant mark in album sales, suggesting great revenue wins for independent artists.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"RouteNote Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-23T11:44:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-23T11:44:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/clay-banks-fEVaiLwWvlU-unsplash.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"444\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CockJacca\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jacca-RouteNote\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"RouteNote\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/\",\"sameAs\":[],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/routenote-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/routenote-logo.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":1000,\"caption\":\"RouteNote\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"RouteNote Blog\",\"description\":\"The World of Digital Music - Distribution - Stores and Free Music\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/clay-banks-fEVaiLwWvlU-unsplash.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/clay-banks-fEVaiLwWvlU-unsplash.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":444,\"caption\":\"albums lined up in tiers\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/\",\"name\":\"Indie artists are taking over, especially in albums - RouteNote Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-23T11:44:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-23T11:44:53+00:00\",\"description\":\"The latest stats show indies on the rise and making a significant mark in album sales, suggesting great revenue wins for independent artists.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Indie artists are taking over, especially in albums\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#webpage\"},\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c0cf8473ad65e0c00d09ff942bac997d\"},\"headline\":\"Indie artists are taking over, especially in albums\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-23T11:44:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-23T11:44:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#webpage\"},\"wordCount\":368,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/clay-banks-fEVaiLwWvlU-unsplash.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"music streaming\",\"royalties\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Artist \/ Label News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c0cf8473ad65e0c00d09ff942bac997d\",\"name\":\"Jacca-RouteNote\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/630810cdfb9548b677f11cb2bfaac3b8?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/630810cdfb9548b677f11cb2bfaac3b8?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jacca-RouteNote\"},\"description\":\"Writing about music, listening to music, and occasionally playing music.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CockJacca\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/author\/jacca\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Indie artists are taking over, especially in albums - RouteNote Blog","description":"The latest stats show indies on the rise and making a significant mark in album sales, suggesting great revenue wins for independent artists.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Indie artists are taking over, especially in albums - RouteNote Blog","og_description":"The latest stats show indies on the rise and making a significant mark in album sales, suggesting great revenue wins for independent artists.","og_url":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/","og_site_name":"RouteNote Blog","article_published_time":"2025-06-23T11:44:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-06-23T11:44:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":444,"url":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/clay-banks-fEVaiLwWvlU-unsplash.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@CockJacca","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jacca-RouteNote","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"RouteNote","url":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/","sameAs":[],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#logo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/routenote-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/routenote-logo.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000,"caption":"RouteNote"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#logo"}},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/","name":"RouteNote Blog","description":"The World of Digital Music - Distribution - Stores and Free Music","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/clay-banks-fEVaiLwWvlU-unsplash.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/clay-banks-fEVaiLwWvlU-unsplash.jpg","width":800,"height":444,"caption":"albums lined up in tiers"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/","name":"Indie artists are taking over, especially in albums - RouteNote Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2025-06-23T11:44:49+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-23T11:44:53+00:00","description":"The latest stats show indies on the rise and making a significant mark in album sales, suggesting great revenue wins for independent artists.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Indie artists are taking over, especially in albums"}]},{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#webpage"},"author":{"@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c0cf8473ad65e0c00d09ff942bac997d"},"headline":"Indie artists are taking over, especially in albums","datePublished":"2025-06-23T11:44:49+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-23T11:44:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#webpage"},"wordCount":368,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/clay-banks-fEVaiLwWvlU-unsplash.jpg","keywords":["music streaming","royalties"],"articleSection":["Artist \/ Label News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/indie-artists-are-taking-over-especially-in-albums\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c0cf8473ad65e0c00d09ff942bac997d","name":"Jacca-RouteNote","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/630810cdfb9548b677f11cb2bfaac3b8?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/630810cdfb9548b677f11cb2bfaac3b8?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Jacca-RouteNote"},"description":"Writing about music, listening to music, and occasionally playing music.","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/CockJacca"],"url":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/author\/jacca\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/clay-banks-fEVaiLwWvlU-unsplash.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104977"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}