KAPFHAMMER; Chris Burnett for BI
Raye is a multi-platinum singer and three-time Grammy nominee who has worked with Beyoncé and opened for Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour. And yet, as of this summer, she said her music career still isn't making her money.
In Business Insider's new feature, "Want to make money as a pop star? Dream on," Raye opened up about balancing the books as an independent artist and sacrificing profit to serve her artistic vision.
"There's ways to make quick cash and there's ways to make a profit. And trust me when I tell you, I'm not taking those ways," Raye told me in June following a performance at the Conrad hotel in downtown Manhattan.
It was the latest stop in a series of mini-concerts across the globe, including Amsterdam, London, and Berlin, to promote her newest single, "Genesis." The price to organize and execute these shows — from travel expenses to lighting design and hiring a full band — was far from cheap, Raye said, but ultimately worth the investment.
"We're breaking even and it's beautiful," she said.
"I'm putting out a piece of music that I'm really proud of," she added, "with the roll-out plan that I wanted."
Raye, 27, was born Rachel Keen in London to a Ghanaian-Swiss mother and an English father. In 2014, she signed a four-album record deal with Polydor, who were impressed by the buzz surrounding her self-released EP, "Welcome to the Winter."
Seven years, four more EPs, and hundreds of thousands of streams later, Raye publicly accused Polydor of keeping her debut album suspended in limbo. She begged the label to take her off the shelf, saying she'd already tried everything else. "I switched genres, I worked seven days a week, ask anyone in the music game, they know," she wrote on X.
The following month, Raye announced that she'd been freed from her contract. In 2023, she released her first full-length LP as an independent artist, "My 21st Century Blues," which landed at No. 3 on BI's list of the year's best albums.
Earlier this year, Raye took home six Brit Awards, setting a record for the most wins in a single night. She's nominated for songwriter of the year, non-classical at the 2025 Grammys, and will also compete against stars like Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter for best new artist. (She was also nominated for best engineered album, non-classical for her work as a producer on Lucky Daye's "Algorithm.")
Jeff Spicer/WireImage
In the music industry, working outside the major-label system can yield more creative control. For Raye, it has ushered in a new era of critical acclaim and commercial success.
But there are downsides, too, namely the lack of financial backing. Labels typically offer an advance as a signing incentive, though the actual dollar amount varies widely. They also tend to cover the up-front costs of recording and promoting an album — studio sessions, producers, sound engineers, photographers, stylists, and radio campaigns, to name a few — which can total $250,000 or more for pop and hip-hop artists, according to Donald Passman, a veteran music lawyer who is the author of the music-industry bible "All You Need to Know About the Music Business."
These days, touring is especially expensive, as costs for everything from bus rentals to hotel rooms to hiring a lighting technician or manning a merchandise table have ballooned.
"You're getting paid X to do Coachella, and then you spend double the amount that you got paid to do the show on the show itself, because you want to do a great show," Raye explained. "And you have to pay musicians, and the singers, and everyone what they deserve."
To find any level of success in the industry, Raye said she needs to be as much a businesswoman as she is a creative force.
Still, even when faced with the cold, hard numbers, she said that losing money is preferable to cutting corners.
"It upsets me to do a half-assed gig or to do a half-hearted thing," Raye said. "If I was in this to make money, I wouldn't even be releasing the kind of music that I am."
