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Lorde Departs Universal Music Group, Confirms She's An Independent Artist

Mary Varvaris

“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,” Lorde explained.

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Lorde(Credit: Thistle Brown)
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For the first time in nearly two decades, Lorde is an independent artist.

She revealed the news in a series of voice notes shared with fans, which have since been posted on social media by a Lorde fan account.

In the voice notes, she explained that she was seeking a “clean slate” after her long-term contract with Universal Music Group expired late last year. Variety also confirmed that her contract with Universal Music Group lapsed in 2025.

“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, and I feel this way because at the end of last year, my label deal, my record contract with Universal came to an end,” Lorde told fans.

She continued, “I have been in that contract for a very, very long time and some form of that contract since I was 12 years old, when I signed my first development deal with Universal.”

Adding that she “adores” the team at Universal Music Group, describing them as “incredible people” who she may return to in the future, Lorde also detailed her motivations for being an independent artist for the time being.

“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,” she explained. “I’m sure I’ll have a deal again, could well be with Universal, but I knew that I needed to take a second to have nothing being bought or sold that comes from me.”

Lorde then discussed pursuing the opportunity to have a clean slate. “When I see an opportunity for a clean slate, I try to take it,” she said. “It does feel different. It sounds like it wouldn’t, but it really does—a feeling of openness and possibility and inspired, of course.

“I’m working and all this stuff, but it just feels exciting to have, I don’t know, remove the container for a second. So yeah, newness is kind of a theme, a clean slate to open this newness. I don’t know if you saw my phone background that says, ‘I have no master.’ But I’m trying to feel what that feels like.”

Lorde released her fourth album through Universal, Virgin, in June 2025. She’s since embarked on an expansive Ultrasound World Tour, which visited Australia and New Zealand last month.

Catching her show at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, The Music’s Claire Dunton declared that Lorde’s Ultrasound Tour “may be the best show of 2026 - the rest of the year be damned.” Check out the review here.