Lorde leaves Universal to become independent artist: ‘I Needed to Take a Second’
"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," the artist shared in a voice message to fans
By Larisha Paul
Lorde is an independent artist. In a voice message to fans, the artist revealed that she decided not to renew her contract with Universal Music Group following the conclusion of the recording deal she entered into at the age of 12.
“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,” Lorde said. “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.”
Lorde released her debut studio album Pure Heroine in September 2013, when she was 16 years old. The album positioned her as a new leader in pop, a literal ruler just as she asked on her breakout single “Royals.” She returned in 2017 with another pivotal record, Melodrama. This was followed by Solar Power in 2021 and Virgin, which arrived in June 2025 as her last album in this deal.
While she hasn’t written off re-signing with another label, even one under UMG, in the future, Lorde is taking this moment to familiarise herself with the unfamiliar. “I knew that I needed to take a second to have nothing being bought or sold that comes from me,” she said. “When I see an opportunity for a clean slate, I try to take it. And it does feel different. It sounds like it wouldn’t, but it really does. I feel a feeling of openness and possibility and I’m inspired.”
Lorde has a few festival shows coming up and the final set of dates on her Ultrasound World Tour scheduled for later this year. She’s also learning to play chess, studying to get her driver’s license (“I must be a licensed driver before I turn 30. This is not up for discussion. Hold me to it.”), and recently signed a lease on an office space to work out of.
“It just feels exciting to have, I don’t know, removed the container or something, for a second,” Lorde said. “So, yeah, newness is kind of the theme, clean slate, openness, newness.” She mentioned that this freedom has showed up in a few different ways, like on her phone background, which reads, “I have no master.” “I’m really trying to just feel what that feels like,” she said. It also showed up on Virgin, particularly on the song “David,” she added.
On ‘David,’ she sings, “Oh, dark day/Was I just young blood to get on tape?/’Cause you dimed me out when it got hard/Uppercut to the throat, I was off guard/Pure heroine mistaken for featherweight.”
“This idea that I kind of started manifesting in ‘David,’ that just clearly wants to keep expanding and expanding,” Lorde said. “I’m just trying to do weird shit. I’m reading bizarre fucking books at the moment, some of them I don’t even know if I like. But there’s newness coming through everywhere, and it feels good. It feels right.”