Laura Mvula found out she was dropped by Sony's RCA Victor via email.
Laura Mvula
The 'Green Garden' hitmaker was left in shock after she learned her contract with the label was to end through a "cold and cruel" message in January that she had been forwarded by her former manager, who had been told in person that they were terminating her five-album deal.
In an interview with the BBC, she revealed: "I didn't see anyone, I didn't hear anybody's voice. I just read words. It felt so cold and cruel.
"Not even the fact I was dropped, the way that the whole thing happened. To be treated like that doesn't feel quite just."
When the brunette beauty opened the email she was left speechless as she had been told she was an important part of the Sony roster, and on reflection she said it was a "major wake up call" to the harsh music industry.
She recalled: "First I was confused, I didn't understand. I was always told I was such a valued part of what Sony had become today - I was an artist who was taking risks and doing things that fresh and genuinely new - I believed them.
"I guess in my head I always thought there would be a conversation, a renegotiation, but never kinda, 'It's over'.
"It's been a huge wake up call."
Laura - who released two albums, 2013's 'Sing to the Moon' and 2016's 'The Dreaming Room', through Sony RCA Victor - has admitted she was "naive" when she first started out and she now realises the record business is all about "money".
She said: "I was definitely naive in the beginning.
"When I was signed, I thought when someone says, we love you and we're there for you until the end, that's what they mean."
"It doesn't work like that, it's business.
"It's about money, it's about sales. And that has certain implications if you are not popular or there aren't enough elements in what you do that draws in the masses.
"The album culture is, 'Momentum, please ... when's the next record coming?'"
Despite her departure from the major label, Laura has "no regrets" about the work she released through RCA, and she is going to follow the advice the late music legend, Prince - who died in April 2016 at the age of 57 from a fentanyl overdose - gave her about going it alone.
She said: "He urged me, Mvula you have the music. Find the means to own your own thing and do it yourself. And at the time I remember hearing those words and thinking, yeah but you're Prince, it's all right for you.
"But I think actually, now I reflect, I understand what he was saying.
"I don't have any regrets, because I think we made ... I made two great records with them."
Sony confirmed to the BBC that they had informed Laura's manager in person about the decision to drop her.
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