Grimes has shared support for Kim Petras, following the latter hitting out at her record label and asking them to drop her.
Petras took to X this week to share her frustrations towards Republic Records, claiming that they are “refusing” to release her new album and saying that she is “tired of having no control over my own life or career”.
The German pop star also added that music she has self-funded has also been shelved, and accused the label of refusing to “pay my collaborators for the work they’ve done”. She then said that she has “formally requested to be dropped by” Republic because she wants to “self-fund and self-curate my own music”.
Now, Grimes has shared backing for Petras and posted a series of updates on X, explaining how she thinks the music industry takes advantage of artists.
Responding to a headline about Petras’ comments, Grimes shared: “Every artist I’ve ever met was, in some point, in a terrible label situation. The labels economic model is based on hits [and] no amount of advice seems to be able to convince enough artists to stop signing to labels.”
She then went on to suggest that the power being in the hands of huge labels “reduces the potential and rewards algorithmically safe music”.
Like every artist I’ve ever met was in some point in a terrible label situation. The labels economic model is based on hits. U sign to a label because of the promise that if a song is going they can throw gasoline on it. No amount of advice seems to be able to convince enough… https://t.co/eDqL2YzbqI
— 𝖦𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 ⏳ (@Grimezsz) January 21, 2026
“They own huge chunks of like any distribution model – most of which are also algo[rithm] based and reward sameness,” Grimes shared. “And, frankly, when I hear an artist I like followed by 40 other artists that sound just like them I start to lose interest.”
“We’ve basically destroyed music journalism, and abundance has actually [made] everything feel less special. […] There used to be a way more sustained amount of smaller artists. The musical middle class, as it were.”
She went on to say that this “peaked” around the time of Napster – as music was less “gatekept” then and people could still succeed without having to rely on their appearance – and then added that she thinks the current industry has prevented interesting new talent from rising through the ranks.
“Every economic incentive in the world has lined up to actively dissuade new music and especially innovative music. The artists I currently consider the pantheon of modern innovators would have been a LOT more successful 10 years ago.”
In another post, Grimes hit out at labels for “now investing in AI” and using the technology to “use [an artists’s] IP to literally recreate” them, as well as at session culture.
Btw labels and publishers are now investing in AI and they can use your ip which they often own to literally recreate you. They just settled with udio who is now their tool, not the people’s tool even though it was created with your work
And btw fuck session culture while… https://t.co/ZNugaKbxUC
— 𝖦𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 ⏳ (@Grimezsz) January 21, 2026
“It breaks my heart watching geniuses make other people famous, sometimes barely getting paid,” Grimes added. “Everything about this industry exploits and beats down the greats because people who are outlier genius at art tend to be hard to control.”
“Very little effort is put into taking care of artists. We are expendable,” she wrote. “And sometimes I suspect they purposefully try to break the best ones so no one else can have them and they can steal their ideas and thrust them on to someone else [who will] accept the abuse.”
Concluding, she added that she is not “100 per cent against” the way the industry works as it has allowed for development and evolution in music, but also believes that there is “so much space for disruption in music distribution”.
That said without all this we’d all be like medieval bards busking at the tavern so I’m not 100% against it but
There is so so so so much space for disruption in music distribution. Which is exciting https://t.co/H5esumRdYC
— 𝖦𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 ⏳ (@Grimezsz) January 21, 2026
The comments in relation to Petras come following Grimes — real name Claire Elise Boucher — leaving Columbia Records in 2023 after signing with them in March 2021.
That same year that she left the label, the artist also backed Miley Cyrus when the latter spoke openly about the demands of touring, and claimed that it “isn’t healthy”. Agreeing with the statements, Grimes said that she had “no idea how to ever approach” touring as it felt like she had to put her wellbeing on hold to do it.
The ‘4AM’ singer also has taken a nuanced outlook towards the use of AI in the music industry over recent years too, and said in 2024 that she thinks the technology “will probably shape all minds going forward for the rest of time”.
Before then, she made over 200+ GrimesAI Records available for content creators to use on any platform, and also released software that mimicked her voice so people could use it in songs.
More recently, she clarified that she is generally against AI being used to make music, saying: “It’s only useful to me for novel/ experimental sound design… Otherwise I fear it is a bit slop oriented at the moment which seems like the opposite of innovation to me.”
Grimes has also faced struggles releasing her own music in recent years too, and at the start of 2025 shared two previously unreleased demos, and apologised to fans for it taking “so long” to get a new album out.
