Tori Amos has ended her partnership with Epic Records in order to become an independent artist, her manager has said.

John Witherspoon said that Amos wanted to follow the examples of other musicians and devise “new and exciting ways of getting her music to the masses without the boundaries and limitations of the major music companies."

Amos signed to Epic Records in 2001 at the conclusion of her deal with Atlantic Records – which had lasted more than a decade.

Speaking to Billboard, Witherspoon said that Amos was pleased to have "chosen the path of impendence”.

He described her next studio album, due in 2009, as “a project of new music and visuals which is being started in the summer”.

Amos’s last album ‘American Doll Posse’ was released in 2007.

(by Jason Gregory)