Record Labels Quotes

• I started my own record label.

  Tom Felton

  Labels, Records, My Own

  53 Copy quote

• The rise of the Internet has caused the demise of the record labels, and has destroyed the music business of old, but it's also created new opportunities for young artists.

  Judy Collins

  Artist, Opportunity, Labels

  8 Copy quote

• I've had big record label presidents look me in the face and say, 'Your music sucks, you don't know who you are, your music is all over the place, and we don't know how to market this stuff. Pick a lane and come back to us.'

  Bruno Mars

  President, Labels, Looks

  "Bruno Mars announces new album 'Unorthodox Jukebox'" by Robert Copsey, www.digitalspy.com. September 28, 2012.

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• You can now be a master of your own destiny. I'm not sure why you would sign up with a record label.

  Sean Parker

  Destiny, Labels, Records

  9 Copy quote

• There’s no “correct path” to becoming a real artist. You might think you’ll gain legitimacy by going to university, getting published, getting signed to a record label. But it’s all bullshit, and it’s all in your head. You’re an artist when you say you are. And you’re a good artist when you make somebody else experience or feel something deep or unexpected.

  Amanda Palmer

  Real, Artist, Thinking

  33 Copy quote

• It is hard, though, 'cos record labels love to boss you around. I won't let them do that anymore.

  Evan Dando

  Boss, Labels, Records

  8 Copy quote

• I just have so much love for my record label.

  Katy Perry

  Labels, Records, Much Love

  "Katy Perry on 'Wide Awake,' Film Aspirations and the 'Part of Me' DVD Release (Q&A)". Interview with Shirley Halperin, www.hollywoodreporter.com. July 5, 2012.

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• I'm going to keep proving people wrong, whether it's my record label, other artists.

  Donnis

  Artist, People, Labels

  "Donnis Talks 'Fashionably Late,' Atlantic Debut & Texting With T.I". Interview with Jordan Martins, www.complex.com. June 24, 2010.

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• We have to wake up early and make songs everyday. I run my record label. You work at hours where your body isn't designed to work. But it's fun.

  A-Trak

  Running, Song, Fun

  Source: www.gq.com

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• I get bored easily, so I need to do a lot. I've started a record label, so I get to nurture new talent and talk about music, which is a passion of mine. I've written another book. And I get to come to work and do the TV show, which is always really fun.

  Ellen DeGeneres

  Fun, Book, Passion

  "Ellen DeGeneres: Nice Girls Finish First". Interview with David Hochman, www.goodhousekeeping.com. September 10, 2011.

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• If you ever want to know why I'm not on a record label, look at 'The X Factor!' Honestly, of all the people that strive to break barriers in music and do good things and write great lyrics, not one of them would ever pass the first round on any of these competitions.

  John Lydon

  Writing, People, Competition

  7 Copy quote

• I've always had a love for poetry and when I got signed to a record label I thought, 'How odd that I'm doing a record before a book of poetry.'

  Jewel

  Book, Labels, Records

  "Jewel, the poet: 'The most honest expression I can find'" by Michael Okwu, www.cnn.com. June 01, 1998.

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• Record labels today are much less patient: Artists have a bad record, and they're gone.

  Kenny Chesney

  Artist, Labels, Gone

  8 Copy quote

• I had to learn the hard way. There was a blindness, without any education or will or drive. Everything I started in the beginning from skate shops to record labels to a million and one side hustles that I went in without knowing how I was going to do it, a lot of those ventures just went out of business.

  Rob Dyrdek

  Knowing, Hustle, Way

  14 Copy quote

• Record labels, which used to have complete control, are essentially irrelevant. The process of a band exposing itself to the world is extremely democratic and there are no barriers. Music is no longer a commodity, it’s an environment, or atmospheric element. Consumers have much more choice and you see people indulging in the specificity of their tastes dramatically more. They only bother with music they like.

  Steve Albini

  People, Choices, Labels

  16 Copy quote

• Record labels collude with some of the radio stations, and the radio stations have their play lists, dependent upon what they call the, quote, 'hits.' What's commercially viable gets recycled, endlessly repeated, and as a result of that, the progressive music can't break in.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Play, Labels, Records

  6 Copy quote

• In theory, when you're working with a record label, you're just borrowing their money. And that's basically how the record industry works, right? It's like, you borrow $100,000 from a record label, so you don't make any money until you make back that money for them. In theory, they have you held hostage, so you've got to do every little stupid thing that they want you to do.

  Patrick Carney

  Stupid, Labels, Records

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• It is true you can be successful without [college], but this is a hard world, a real world, and you want every advantage you can have. I would suggest to people to do all that you can. When I dropped out of school, I had worked in the music industry and had checks cut in my name from record labels and had a record deal on the table, and when I wasn’t successful and Columbia said, ’We’ll call you,’ I had to go back and work a telemarketing job, go back to the real world, and that’s how life is. Life is hard. Take advantage of your opportunities.

  Kanye West

  Jobs, Real, School

  "College Dropout Kanye Tells High School Students Not To Follow In His Footsteps" by Corey Moss, www.mtv.com. December 5, 2005.

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• The means of control that record labels had vis-à-vis distribution no longer exist.

  Doug Walters

  Mean, Labels, Records

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

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• The head of a record label sets up structures, but he also defines the sound of the label, which is to describe what is desirable, what fits and what is quality for that label and then to create an environment where that sound can thrive.

  John Kao

  Quality, Sound, Labels

  Interview with Joel Kurtzman, www.strategy-business.com. October 1, 1996.

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• It's not that I don't want to, it's just that there's no money in it. By that I mean the way the video business works now, the artist and the record label send out a song to a bunch of different directors and say, 'What would you do with this?' Then everyone has to come up with an idea and bid on it. For me, it's like, 'Hey, you want me to do it? Then pay me. I'm not auditioning for you.'

  John Landis

  Song, Mean, Artist

  4 Copy quote

• MCs get a little bit of love and think they hot,
  Talkin bout how much money they got...all y'all records sound the same.
  I'm sick of that fake thug, R&B-rap scenario, all day on the radio,
  Same scenes in the video, monotonous material.
  ...Y'all don't hear me though:
  These record labels slang our tapes like dope.
  You can be next in line and signed, and still be writing rhymes and broke.

  Stic.man

  Rap, Writing, Thug

  45 Copy quote

• I love the road. That's always been my goal. I've said that to many record labels. I want to make records. The road is my favorite. Some people hate the road, I love the road.

  Gary Allan

  Hate, People, Goal

  4 Copy quote

• In the early 1970s. 1971, '72. The rooms were closing down, record labels weren't signing acoustic acts any more. Although they had been pretty much been getting out of that for some time before that.

  Dave Van Ronk

  Labels, Records, Rooms

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• I'm confused that there is a lack of faith in listening to and deciding what is a great song and instead going for these formulaic, bad songs over and over again. But that's what happened when people from beverage companies bought record labels and radio stations as opposed to people who love music owning record labels.

  Patty Griffin

  Love, Song, Confused

  5 Copy quote