The rise of indie cool
Opinion – The Indie Leader – AMI
In time, ‘cool’ always wins, says Mostly Media’s head of growth. Indie labels have benefited from the democratisation of music, and in media, the collaboration of independents has seen them thrive.
As a young man, my Wednesdays would be spent poring over Sounds or Melody Maker and drooling over the music. Long before I was lucky enough to work as a music journalist (briefly), I was (and am and always will be) fascinated by bands, gigs, and the charts – but mainly the indie ones.
Being indie was cool; indie rules. We knew we were better; we didn’t sell out; we were the cool kids; we wrote on our army-surplus backpacks; and we loved our tribes.
Indie was underground; if you knew, you knew. Less Wembley Stadium, more The Camden Falcon, The Venue (New Cross), Sir George Robey…. I could and might go on. That was then.
Today, something fundamental shifted. The independents aren’t the scrappy underdogs reserved for the sticky pub floors anymore.
Still cooler, way cooler actually, but also now the shift has seen the indies sitting at the top table, something that has become all the more clear across two of my favourite topics, independent music and media planning and buying (where I’ve been lucky enough to work for a true independent in Mostly Media) and the strength of that independence is very powerful.
In music, independent artists and labels now command 46.7% of the global recorded music market, generating $14.3 bn in revenue in 2024.
In the UK media agency world, the Alliance of Media Independents launched in January 2025 with 10 founding agencies. Within five months, that number reached 26, representing £1.56bn in combined billings.
One year in, it’s grown to over 30 agencies representing more than £1.6bn in aggregate billings (that’s more than WPP’s entire UK media arm, according to Nielsen figures).
Non-major music labels grew revenues by 8.2% in 2024 to reach $10.7bn, increasing their market share to 29.7%. Independent music accounts for 35% of total music consumption in the US, with the indie share of album sales hitting 40%.
In streaming, non-major labels grew 8.4% to $5.4bn, outpacing the 5.4% growth of major labels.
Twenty years ago, signing with a major label or joining a holding company network was the dream of many. Whilst in your heart you may know you’re not ‘cool’ perceptively, it meant you’d made it.
Access to resources, scale, distribution, credibility; cool can be parked in the success corner for now, thank you.
But here’s what happens with time, cool wins and in music, the internet almost immediately democratised distribution.
Streaming platforms made the major labels’ primary function obsolete. You no longer needed their machinery to reach an audience. And in media, clients realised that holding company “scale” often meant bloated overheads, conflicted recommendations driven by group deals, and account teams so lean that the work suffered.
In media, indie cool just gets more interesting
The Alliance of Media Independents proves something that sounds contradictory but isn’t: independents become more powerful when they collaborate, without losing what makes them independent in the first place.
Mostly Media is a founding member of AMI. Whilst we may compete with other AMI agencies in pitch situations, collectively, we’ve achieved so much value for all the cool kids; partnerships with Google, Snapchat, ITV, and Experian. Access to tools, insights, and commercial deals that used to be reserved for holding company agencies.
The ITV-AMI Backing Business Fund is a perfect example. A multi-million-pound commercial partnership, exclusively for AMI members, making TV advertising more accessible for clients who previously might have been priced out. That wouldn’t exist without collective buying power, one of the benefits of a Holdco.
Martin Woolley, AMI’s Chair, says it clearly: “AMI will continue fostering this spirit, helping media independents compete with larger networks by leveraging their collective power and expertise. Our goal is to ensure advertisers have a real choice, beyond the ’17 shades of vanilla’ often served by global networks.”
That’s the model. Compete where it matters. Collaborate where it helps. Stay independent where it counts, and being cool is growing:
* UK ad spends rose 8% in Q1 2025 to £10.6bn (AA/WARC).
* Total UK ad spend is forecast to reach £45.4bn in 2025 (AA/WARC).
* The UK digital advertising agencies industry is ~£20.4bn (2024–25) and grew at ~7.2% CAGR (2019–2024) (IBISWorld).
* The indie music market is projected to reach $149.91bn by 2029 (Mordor Intelligence).
However, the numbers don’t capture the qualitative shift. Independent agencies and artists operate with different priorities; we’re playing a long game that the quarterly earnings cycle doesn’t allow for.
We can invest in relationships, in craft, in doing the right thing, even when it’s not the most immediately profitable. The independent sector isn’t slowing down. In music, the numbers are clear. In the media, the AMI growth trajectory suggests we’re just getting started.
The majors (and Holdco’s) will always exist. They serve a function for certain artists and certain clients who need that level of infrastructure. But the idea that they’re the default, the aspiration, the only path to success? That’s finished.
Being independent isn’t the scrappy alternative anymore; it’s the smart choice, and being part of a collective like AMI or the broader Alliance of Independent Agencies? That’s not a compromise of independence. It’s an amplification of it.
The independents won; cool is just getting started.
Alex Pilkington is head of growth at Mostly Media. AMI members write regularly for The Media Leader in 2026 as part of our new Indie Leader series.