For Miley Cyrus, complete personal and artistic freedom — the kind that allowed her to announce at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday that she was following 2013’s “Bangerz,” her platinum-selling, major label pop album, with 23 sprawling new songs, now streaming free online — is something she’s earned after nearly a decade of fame.

“That’s what I’ve got the luxury to do,” Ms. Cyrus, 22, said at her home studio in California a week before the show, at which she served as host, enthusiastically goofing on her reputation for provocative costumes, speaking freely and drug use. She used the night to take full advantage of the commercial platform to debut a different, decidedly noncommercial version of herself. “I can just do what I want to do, and make the music I want to make.”

The result is “Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz,” which finds the singer again reimagining her role in the culture, blowing out the pop-star liberation narrative of “Bangerz,” and eager to show that what appeared to be a performative, post-Disney, anything-goes ethos is more than a retail strategy — it’s her all-encompassing aesthetic and lifestyle. And while she is operating outside of her label contract, Ms. Cyrus is confident that, given the scope of her influence, enough fans will come along to make this investment in her individual happiness a worthy one.