James Blake is now an independent artist

nme.com:

James Blake has revealed that he’s now an independent artist, sharing the news on his Instagram account today (April 10).The artist shared a video alongside his post, which you can watch below.

In the video, Blake said “it feels good to be independent because I’ve wanted to take things into my own hands for a long time” and said he was looking forward to working more “directly” with his fans.Blake signed with A&M Records to release his self-titled debut album in 2011 before departing to sign to Republic Records, releasing his second album, ‘Overgrown’ in 2013 followed by subsequent albumns, ‘The Colour In Anything’ (2016), ‘Assume Form’ (2019), ‘Friends That Break Your Heart’ (2021) and ‘Playing Robots Into Heaven’ (2023).Blake wrote in the caption to the video: “After over a decade on a label it feels scary to go independent but here we are.

As someone who hates spam, I promise not to send you annoying emails. Just trying to break free of the algorithm gods gatekeeping art.“Speak soon (and sorry for the reposting..

video kept cutting short.. like I said I’m bad at this..)”You can see his announcement in full here:A post shared by James Blake (@jamesblake)Last month, Blake said he’d reportedly found a “solution” to streaming, while also sharing some previously unheard tracks.The announcement from the musician comes after he went viral recently for a series of posts, criticising the lack of royalties artists can make by streaming their music or sharing it on TikTok.