Invincible was released on October 30, 2001. It was Jackson's first full album of only all-new material since 1991's Dangerous. The cover art of this album was a simple design of just Michael's face. It was available in the standard silver edition, or five limited colours: red, green, yellow, orange, and blue. The album included guests performances by Carlos Santana, Brandy and posthumous appearances by The Notorious B.I.G. and Rod Serling. On Invincible, Michael Jackson expanded his vocal abilities as well as his instrumental involvement on the album, playing most of the instruments and performing much of the programming tasks in collaboration with producers Rodney Jerkins, Teddy Riley, and Dr. Freeze.

Just before the release of Invincible, Jackson informed then Sony Music Entertainment head, Tommy Mottola, that he was not going to renew his contract, signed in 1991, which was about to expire in terms of supplying the label with albums of full-new material for release through Epic Records/Sony Music Entertainment. By 2002, sales and interest in the album had decreased rapidly, which prompted Mottola to cancel all single releases, video shootings and promotions concerning the Invincible album. Due to this abrupt canceling, Jackson made allegations about Sony not supporting its African American artists. In addition, reportedly racist remarks were made by Sony Entertainment's head, Tommy Mottola. As a result Jackson and other label artists claimed he was a racist who used black artists for his own personal gain. Jackson also insisted that Mottola called Irv Gotti a "fat nigger". Sony issued a statement saying the allegations were untrue since Motolla used to be married to pop star Mariah Carey, who is of Venezuelan and African-American descent, and was currently married with Mexican pop star Thalía.

There were seven singles and videos that Sony and Jackson wanted to release from Invincible. Initially, Jackson wanted to release "Unbreakable" as the debut single from the album, partnered with a 20-minute music video. However, Sony wanted Jackson to release "You Rock My World" instead of "Unbreakable" due to shorter production time of the video accompanying the single. "You Rock My World" was the only worldwide single release from Invincible and would reach the top ten position in 22 countries. Jackson had also planned to release "The Lost Children", "Break of Dawn", "Butterflies", "Speechless", "Cry" and "Whatever Happens" (with Carlos Santana).

In 2002, Jackson announced that Invincible would be his last studio album with Epic Records