2024 GRAMMY Awards | 66th Annual Show by the Recording Academy

The 2024 GRAMMY awards took place February, 4th in Los Angeles. The major awards were split up fairly evenly among the four major labels. However, the 2024 GRAMMY awards shows growing independent music success is happening. This year, over 50% of the nominations were to independent artists and music makers. This proves that independent artists are being recognized in greater numbers than ever.

Women Dominated The 2024 GRAMMYs

It has been a year for women in music, with women dominating the GRAMMY awards. Album of the year went to Taylor Swift for a record fourth time. Billie Eilish (partially independent) won song of the year. While Record of the Year went to Miley Cyrus. Lainey Wilson won country album of the year. Joni Mitchell had a touching performance. Indie supergroup boygenius won three GRAMMYs after a groundbreaking 2023. Independent artist Bonnie Raitt won song of the year. Plus Victoria Monét won best new artist and more. Plenty of other women won GRAMMYs this year too.

Independent Artists That Won Big At The GRAMMYs

boygenius Wins 3 GRAMMYs

As previously mentioned, boygenius won a handful of GRAMMYs, including best alternative rock album! They have had an amazing year in 2023 and are famously independent. The group is comprised of American singer-songwriters Lucy Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker. Their first EP was in 2018, while they won this year with their debut album ‘The Record’. This goes to show how collaboration can bring a lot of success for independent artists.

Bonnie Raitt Wins Song Of The Year

Bonnie Raitt is obviously a big name, but after a long career with various major records, she finally broke away with an independent label ‘Redwing Records’. This proved to be a huge success story, with her winning song of the year for ‘Just Like That’.

Larkin Poe Wins Best Contemporary Blues Album

Continuing on with the successful women at the GRAMMYs, Larkin Poe won Best Contemporary Blues Album for ‘Blood Harmony’. This sisterly duo is with the indie label Tricki-Woo. If you haven’t listened to this album yet, you should now!

Killer Mike Wins Best Rap Album, Song & Performance GRAMMYs

Killer Mike won Best Rap Album with ‘Michael’. He started out early with the majors, hated and became unsigned. They tried to change his name and control his art. See more on what he had to say about this in the interview below. It is reported that he had some issues back stage at the GRAMMYs, but who knows what actually happened yet. Also won Best Rap Song and performance with SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS featuring Andre 3000 Eryn Allen Kane and Future.

Julian Marley Wins Best Reggae Album

Julian Marley won Best Reggae Album with ‘Colors of Royal’. He’s part of the reggae indie labels Ghetto Youths Crew and Tuff Gong. Julian Marley is the son of reggae icon Bob Marley and Lucy Pounder.

Laufey Wins Best Traditional Vocal Pop Album

Laufey won Best Traditional Vocal Pop Album with ‘Bewitched’. She is part of the AWAL indie label which has a great roster of independent artists. Its name is an acronym for ‘Artists Without A Label’. However… I did read that it was purchased by Sony Music Entertainment in 2021.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway Win Best Bluegrass Album

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway won Best Bluegrass Album. That winning album is ‘City of Gold’ and it is amazing! Listen to it below. They are with the indie label Compass Records.

A lot of other independent artists won awards too, too many to list here right now. But we may update this later. The point here is, you don’t need a major label to win a GRAMMY!

Billie Eilish Proved Independent Success at GRAMMYs

Billie Eilish was a huge independent music success story back in the 2020 GRAMMY Awards. She won five GRAMMYs that year at the age of 18. Since then… she signed with Interscope Records, which is technically still independent. But they’re partially owned by Universal Records, which is a major label. So it’s hard to still classify her as independent. But she will always be a huge independent success story for how she came up. This year, she won Song Of The Year with ‘What Was I Made For?’.

Is Taylor Swift an Independent Artist?

The answer is… sort of. Taylor swift famously broke away from her major label and is re-recording and releasing her older records in an effort to own her music catalog. Her career started out at 16 as an indie artist, then found unbelievable success and is one of the biggest stars today. She has used that success to try and gain back her own independence from the major record labels. At the GRAMMYs last night, she announced her next new album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ when accepting her award. It’s set to be released in April. I would think it will be released independently and will probably be one of the biggest independent records to date.

2024 GRAMMY Awards Shows Growing Independent Music Success

With all of the independent music artists being nominated in the 2024 GRAMMYs (over half), plus those who won and performed, independent music is stronger than ever. We’re sure other big names will follow in Taylor Swifts foot prints and go independent. It’s becoming very popular to break away from the majors and go with smaller independent labels or just unsigned. We will continue to highlight independent music success stories here and showcase the best new music. Ya don’t need to sign away your life any more to a major label to find success. Artists can stand strong and stay in control of their own destiny!

Learn some more tips on how to be considered by The GRAMMYs here. Their site says that taking part in the voting process and joining the Recording Academy are great steps to being noticed

Find more great new music here