Last year marked another impressive year for independent musicians across genres. Many rising independent artists found success on the streaming charts, earned Grammy nominations, and even secured major sync placements. While several veteran acts decided to leave the legacy labels behind for the greener pastures of an indie home.
Below is a list of announced albums, EPs, and projects from independent artists to be released in 2026. Please note that this rolling list will not include reissues or anniversary releases. However, remixes will be added, and the remix artist will be given an attribution.
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January 9, 2026
DRAMA — Platonic Romance (via Drama)
Dry Cleaning — Secret Love (via 4AD)
Home Star — A Binding Life (via Born Losers Records)
Jessica Baio — SACRED (via 10K Projects)
Jenny On Holiday — Quicksand Heart (via Transgressive Records)
KIRINJI — Town Beat (via syncokin)
Lower Definition — The Purpose Of The Moon (via Lower Definition)
Mon Rovîa — Bloodline (via Nettwerk Music Group)
The Cribs — Selling A Vibe (via Play It Again Sam)
VOILÀ — The Last Laugh (via Stem)
YSR Gramz — Make Flint Great Again (via YSR Records)
January 14, 2026
NCT WISH – WISHLIST (via Avex Music Creative Inc.)
January 16, 2026
Alice Merton — Visions (via Paper Plane Records)
Baby Nova — Shhugar (via Artist Partner Group)
Blanket — True Blue (via Adventure Cat Records)
Cavetown — Running With Scissors (via Futures)
Clothesline From Hell — SLATHER ON THE HONEY (via 444%)
Corbyn Besson — HEAD FIRST EP (via BMG)
Courtney Marie Andrews — Valentine (via Thirty Tigers)
DZ Deathrays — Easing Out Of Control (via DZ Deathrays)
Elles Bailey — Can’t Take My Story Away (via Outlaw Music Limited)
Elijah Blake — The Gemini (via RKeyTek Music/MNRK Records)
Frankie Bird — Grit (via self-released)
Greywind — Severed Heart City (via FLG)
Jordi — Jordi (via Sound Factory Records)
Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore — Tragic Magic (via InFiné)
Jana Horn — Jana Horn (via No Quarter Records)
Keep Shelly In Athens — V (via Athenian Aura Recordings/Ninja Tune)
KLAXX — Where Everything Collides (via bitbird)
Langhorne Slim — The Dreamin’ Kind (via Dualtone Music Group)
Low Gap — Geneva (via Cloverdale Records)
Peaer — Doppelgänger (via Danger Collective)
Xiu Xiu — Xiu Mutha F****n’ Xiu: Vol. 1 (via Polyvinyl)
January 21, 2026
Delaney Bailey — Concave (via AWAL)
Maria Somerville — Luster Remixes EP (via 4AD)
January 23, 2026
Ashley Kutcher — Back To My Roots & These Roots Run Deep (via Ditto Music)
Cat Power — Redux EP (via Domino)
Lilly Wood & The Prick — Christina (via Choke Industry/Wagram Music)
Louis Tomlinson — How Did I Get Here? (via BMG)
Lucinda Williams — World’s Gone Wrong (via Thirty Tigers)
Megadeth — Megadeth (via Tradecraft)
Melissa Bonny — Cherry Red Apocalypse (via self-released)
Phabo — Ratchet & Blues (via The Polaris Way)
PVA — No More Like This (via It’s All For Fun)
Red Sun — At Their Very Best (via Wax Bodega)
Searows — Death in the Business of Whaling (via Last Recording On Earth)
The Format — Boycott Heaven (via Vanity Label)
The Paper Kites — If You Go There, I Hope You Find It (via Nettwerk Music Group)
XG — The Core (via XGALX)
January 27, 2026
MARO — SO MUCH HAS CHANGED (via Secca Records)
January 30, 2026
Annabelle Chairlegs — Waking Up (via TODO)
Blackwater Holylight — Not Here Not Gone (via Suicide Squeeze)
Buzzcocks — Attitude Adjustment (via self-released)
Emily Scott Robinson — Appalachia (via Oh Boy Records)
Geologist — Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights? (via Drag City)
JOSEPH — Closer To Happy (via Nettwerk Music Group)
Joyce Manor — I Used to Go to This Bar (via Epitaph)
Leisure Hour — …and to think (via Counter Intuitive Records)
Lucinda Williams — World’s Gone Wrong (via Highway 20)
Sick Joy — More Forever (via Sick Joy)
Softcult — When A Flower Doesn’t Grow (via Easy Life Records)
The Molotovs — Wasted On Youth (via Marshall Ampfilication Plc)
The Soft Pink Truth — Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever? (via Thrill Jockey)
Trash Boat — Even If I Never Get There EP (via Blood Blast Distribution)
Yumi Zouma — No Love Lost To Kindness (via Nettwerk Music Group)
February 6, 2026
Beverly Glenn-Copeland — Laughter In Summer (via Transgressive)
Charlotte Day Wilson — Patchwork (via Stone Woman Music/XL Recordings)
Daphni — Butterfly (via Jiaolong)
Mandy, Indiana — Urgh (via Sacred Bones)
Ratboys — Singin’ To An Empty Chair (via New West)
Sasha Keable — ACT II (via The Flight Club Records)
February 13, 2026
Brent Faiyaz — Icon (via ISO Supremacy/UnitedMasters)
Clay Street Unit — Sin & Squalor (via Leo33)
Converge — Love Is Not Enough (via Epitaph)
Danny L Harle — Cerulean (via XL)
Hemlocke Springs — The Apple Tree Under the Sea (via AWAL
Jill Scott — To Whom This May Concern (via Blues Babe Records/Human Re Sources/The Orchard)
Terrace Martin — Peace (via Sounds of Crenshaw / EMPIRE)
The Olympians — In Search of a Revival (via Daptone Records)
The Waymores — The Knot (via Keystone Artist Connect)
Tiana Major9 — November Scorpio (via +1 Records)
February 17, 2026
WILLOW — petal rock black (via Three Siz Zero Recordings)
February 20, 2026
Banshee — The Secrets to Altering Reality (via VERSION III)
Black Sea Dahu — EVERYTHING (via Mouthwatering Records)
Choker — Heaven Ain’t Sold (via Jet Fuzz)
DaBoii — DBoii Ali (via YWM/EMPIRE)
Eileen Alister — ROOM SERVICE (via H2 Music)
FILMORE — Atypical (via Mr.305 Records)
Hen Ogledd — Discombobulated (via Weird World/Domino]
Leigh-Anne — My Ego Told Me To (via Made In The 90s)
Moby — Future Quiet (via BMG)
MOTHICA — Somewhere In Between EP (via Heavy Heart Records)
Mozzy & EST Gee — NOT A CHANCE IN HELL (via Mozzy Records/Young Shiners/EMPIRE)
Nathan Fake — Evaporator (via InFiné)
Peaches — No Lube So Rude (via Kill Rock Stars)
February 27, 2026
2charm – star scum city (via Star Scum Records)
Bill Callahan — My Days Of 58 (via Drag City)
Buck Meek — The Mirror (via 4AD)
DEADLETTER — Existence is Bliss (via So Recordings)
Deathcrash — Somersaults [via Untitled (Recs)]
Emyrson Flora — Aren’t You Curious? (via self-released)
FORAGER — Even a Child Can Cover the Sun with a Finger (via Ring Road/La Reserve Records)
GENA (Liv.e & Karriem Riggins) — The Pleasure is Yours (via Lex)
Grace Inspace — Heavy Hair (via TODO)
Gorillaz — The Mountain (via Kong)
Heavenly — Highway to Heavenly (via Skep Wax)
Iron & Wine — Hen’s Teeth (via Sub Pop)
Kevin Richard Martin — Sub Zero (via Pressure)
Lala Lala — Heaven 2 (via Sub Pop)
Maria BC — Marathon (via Sacred Bones)
Mitski — Nothing’s About to Happen to Me (via Dead Oceans)
Nothing — A Short History of Decay (via Run for Cover)
Sideshow — TIGRAY FUNK (via 10k)
Voxtrot — Dreamers In Exile (via Cult Hero)
March 6, 2026
Bory — NEVER TURNS TO NIGHT (via Bleak Enterprise)
Charlotte Sands — Satellite (via CS Records)
ERRA — Silence Outlives the Earth (via UNFD)
Flying Lotus — BIG MAMA EP (via Brainfeeder)
Gregory Uhlmann — Extra Stars (via International Anthem)
Katherine Priddy — These Frightening Machines (via Cooking Vinyl)
Ohyung — Iowa (via self-released)
The Scythe — Strictly 4 the Scythe (via Loma Vista)
Shabaka — Of the Earth (via Shabaka Records)
Tomu DJ — Antagonist (via Sound as Language)
March 13, 2026
Alexis Taylor — Paris in the Spring (via Night Time Stories)
Anjimile — You’re Free to Go (via 4AD)
Brigitte Calls Me Baby — Irreversible (via ATO Records)
Cut Worms — Transmitter (via Jagjaguwar)
Elucid — I Guess U Had to Be There (via Rhymesayers/Secretly)
Haute & Freddy — Big Disgrace (via Runaway Carnie Co)
Kim Gordon — Play Me (via Matador)
Olive Jones — For Mary (via Nettwerk Music Group)
Shorelinе — Is This The Low Point Or The Moment After? (via Pure Noise Records)
Sweet Pill — Still There’s A Glow (via Hopeless Records)
Tinariwen — Hoggar (via Wedge)
We Three — She Left For America (via self-released)
March 20, 2026
Anna Calvi — Is This All There Is? (via Domino)
Avalon Emerson & the Charm — Written Into Changes (via Dead Oceans)
BTS — Arirang (via Hybe)
Danny Mellin — Ideas Above My Station (via self-released)
Green-House — Hinterlands (via Ghostly)
Ladytron — Paradises (via Nettwerk)
Mclusky — i sure am getting sick of this bowling alley (via Ipecac Recordings)
More Eaze — Sentence Structure in the Country (via Thrill Jockey)
Naomi Jon — Strawberry (via self-released)
March 27, 2026
ADULT. — Kissing Luck Goodbye (via Dais Records)
Charlotte Cornfield — Hurts Like Hell (via Merge)
Courtney Barnett — Creature of Habit (via Mom+Pop)
Fcukers — Ö (via Ninja Tune)
Flea — Honora (via Nonesuch)
José González — Against the Dying of the Light (via Mute])
King Tuff — Moo (via MUP Records/Thirty Tigers)
Lone — Hyperfantasia (via Greco-Roman)
The New Pornographers — The Former Site Of (via Merge)
Paula Kelley — Blinking as the Starlight Burns Out (via Wharf Cat)
RAYE — This Music May Contain Hope (via Human Re Sources)
Robyn — Sexistential (via Konichiwa/Young)
rum.gold — Is There Anybody Home? (Independent Co.)
Shinichi Atobe — Silent Way (via Plastic & Sounds)
Sofia Kourtesis — DJ-Kicks: Sofia Kourtesis (via !K7)
Snail Mail — Ricochet (via Matador)
Stuck — Optimizer (via Exploding in Sound)
Tigers Jaw — Lost On You (via Hopeless Records)
The Twilight Sad — It’s the Long Goodbye (via Rock Action Records)
April 3, 2026
Arlo Parks — Ambiguous Desire (via Transgressive)
Bruce Hornsby — Indigo Park (via Zappo Productions/Thirty Tigers)
Makthaverskan — Glass and Bones (via Run for Cover)
Sunn O))) — Sunn O))) (via Sub Pop)
Thundercat — Distracted [Brainfeeder Records]
Wendy Eisenberg — Wendy Eisenberg [Joyful Noise]
April 10, 2026
Holly Humberstone — Cruel World (via Polydor)
April 17, 2026
Hedvig Mollestad Weejuns — Bitches Blues (via Rune Grammofon)
Kathryn Mohr — Carve (via The Flenser)
Souled American — Sanctions (via Jealous Butcher)
April 22, 2026
Ekko Astral — The Beltway Is Burning (via Topshelf)
April 24, 2026
Friko — Something Worth Waiting For (via ATO Records)
Gia Margaret — Singing (via Jagjaguwar)
Kneecap — Fenian (via Heavenly Recordings)
Lightning Bolt and OOIOO — The Horizon Spirals / The Horizon Viral (via Thrill Jockey)
Metric — Romanticize the Dive (via Thirty Tigers)
Miss Grit — Under My Umbrella (via Mute)
Oscar Blue — Birds in Winter (via self-released)
The Saddest Landscape — Alone With Heaven (via Iodine Recordings)
White Fence — Orange (via Drag City)