Katie Hargrove’s journey through music is a testament to the resilience, adaptability and creative ambition that shapes so many of today’s independent artists. The Tennessee singer-songwriter has carved out a career that reflects an industry in flux — one in which genre-defying creativity and unconventional revenue streams are reshaping the rules for success.
Growing up in Knoxville with a musician father who loved Hank Williams and a college professor mother who was a fan of hip hop and R&B, Katie’s musical influences were as broad as her ambitions.
‘Music was a big part of my childhood,’ she recalls to M, describing it as both ‘an outlet and a way to cope’. ‘If I’m honest, my family had a lot going on,’ she adds. ‘My dad struggled with addiction and mental health issues, and I was watching that unfold.’
As she entered her teens, Katie started performing live during breaks between her father’s sets. ‘I was this 13-year-old girl with an electric guitar, performing in a bar,’ she remembers with a laugh. Those early experiences helped forge her stage presence and resilience — qualities she would rely on as she progressed in the industry.
‘Music was a big part of my childhood.’
By her early twenties, she’d released her self-titled debut EP, which broke into the iTunes Top 100 and earned her a nomination for Best R&B Album at the 2018 A2IM Libera Awards. Nominated alongside the likes of Sharon Jones and Mavis Staples, Katie confesses to having felt a wave of ‘imposter syndrome’ but also validation.
‘That was a big jumping point for me to get into rooms and be able to leverage myself as a songwriter,’ she says. ‘Without that, I don’t know if I’d be sitting where I am today.’
But this recognition came with a harsh lesson as, like many young artists, Katie found that she was tied down to a restrictive record deal. ‘All I had control over was my publishing,’ she tells M. ‘I realised I needed to start writing for other people if I wanted to make this work.’
By late 2018, she had moved to Los Angeles and thrown herself into the city’s creative scene. ‘I was doing double writing sessions daily, writing with anyone who would collaborate,’ she recalls. This relentless approach led to one of her most significant partnerships to date: that with Avena Savage, the creative force behind RUNN. ‘Avena was one of the first people who really took a shot on me in LA,’ Katie says.
Indeed, Avena helped open the door to sync for Katie when they both attended a songwriting camp hosted by Pulse Studios and Starz. Offered the opportunity to collaborate on new music and potentially have a track featured in the US TV series Vida, Katie, who was pulled into a group with Avena, wound up writing two songs in Spanish with Angelica Garcia. When the songs aired in 2020, they ‘made a splash’: further sync placements followed and, in turn, a new kind of artistic and financial freedom. ‘Syncs have given me so much autonomy to be the artist that I want to be,’ she explains.
Rather than serving as a back-up plan, Katie found that sync licensing was a ‘truly life-changing’ venture that could allow her to purse varied projects on her own terms without compromising her artistry. Crucially, sync placements offered her a way to sustain herself financially, especially when live performances halted during the pandemic. In a shifting industry, Katie’s success in sync typifies a growing trend for many independent artists: licensing music for film, television and adverts has evolved from a niche opportunity to a serious revenue stream and outlet for creative exploration.
Sync has also enabled Katie to expand her creative network. In 2020, she met UK composer and producer Sarah deCourcy while busking in LA, leading Katie to join a Christmas project Sarah was working on as a vocalist: ‘I was broke and didn’t know how to record myself in the midst of COVID,’ Katie recalls. She got on a call with Sarah with the hope that she was going to earn some quick and much-needed cash. ‘We wrote these songs; they ended up in movies and TV shows and all of this incredible stuff,’ she says.
This triumphant collaboration prompted Katie to reassign her royalty collections outside of the US to PRS for Music, putting her in a strong position to make an impact on a global scale. ‘We were starting to see a lot of success in the UK,’ she says. ‘PRS isn’t just about the money: it’s about all of us winning. I really feel that from them. They’re always thinking of ways to get us in rooms or to helps us get off the ground.’
‘PRS isn’t just about the money: it’s about all of us winning. I really feel that from them.'
In an industry increasingly focused on metrics and social reach, Katie’s dedication to songwriting and emotional resonance stands out. Her story is more than just a tale of personal triumph: it’s a window into the changing landscape of the music business itself. True success, Katie’s story suggests, isn’t about following a formula — it’s about rewriting it.
Katie remains anchored, though, by her enduring love for the craft of songwriting. ‘When I’m 90, I’m not going to care about the numbers,’ she states. ‘I’ll care about the songs I wrote.’
This article is taken from M's special Future Makers edition — you can read the magazine in full here. Katie's new EP Follow the Sound is out now.
