Last night was a pretty great night for Chance the Rapper. The 23-year-old artist was honored for the first time with not one, not two, but THREE Grammy Awards. And while that is a huge feat in and of itself, there’s something that makes these wins even more impressive. He earned them without selling any physical copies of his music.

The Chicago rapper is not currently signed by any record label, and has dropped his songs online on streaming sites like Apple Music and Spotify, for free!

Chance recently explained his reasoning in an interview with Vanity Fair. He said:

“After I made my second mixtape and gave it away online, my plan was to sign with a label and figure out my music from there. But after meeting with the three major labels, I realized my strength was being able to offer my best work to people without any limit on it.

I make money from touring and selling merchandise, and I honestly believe if you put effort into something and you execute properly, you don’t necessarily have to go through the traditional ways.”

He also sells the hats he always wears, labeled with the number “3”, and even these are on a huge backorder.

Chance won for “Best New Artist”, “Best Rap Album”, and “Best Rap Performance”. When excepting his award for best rap album, Chance yelled, “This is for every indie artist!”

Looks like he sure is doing something right.

Congratulations, Chance!