Pete Wentz Quotes

It's a small percentile of people who see one dime out of the music business.

There are musicians who want to make a living making music. There are listeners who want to listen to music. Complicating this relationship is a whole bunch of history: some of the music I want to listen to was made a while ago in a different economy. Some of the models of making a living making music are no longer valid but persist.

Selling music doesn't make that much money.

There's no money in music. I know that. I think the whole world should know that.

A song is essentially an 'asset' after its creation and release because it can be traded, sold or rented. This makes it the backbone of earnings in the 'music ecosystem.'

If you can play live and support yourself, it's one of the few ways you're going to actually get paid in this business these days.

Sheet music, recording, radio, television, cassettes, CD burners, and file sharing have all invalidated, to some extent, the old model of making a living making music.

I have always abhorred the business end of music.

I'd hate to be a songwriter starting a career today.

You learn at a certain point that you have to focus on the business side of music. After getting ripped off a couple of times, you figure out that you need to get a grip on it.

But anyone who knows anything about the music industry knows it's not only about the music.

I have known from the beginning one thing you need to know. That is, the music business is a business.

I don't see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won't pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can't get it.

The music industry is very small.

Music is more available than ever. It's up to people to figure out. Ultimately, it's up to the business to figure out what the business is, monetizing that.

Most artists, you know, you spend their entire lives learning how to play music and write songs, and they don't really know how the music business works.

Tell me a musician who's got rich off digital sales. Apple's doing pretty good though, right?

It's always boiled down to the quality of your music and the quality of your deal with whoever's distributing your music: There are artists who sold a lot of records and didn't make money because of their deal, and artists who didn't sell nearly as much who made a great living because they own their masters.

The income streams of musicians have all been upstreamed into the pockets of computer corporations. Sound recordings are little more than free crackerjacks inside every computer or cellphone that you buy.

It's called the music business. We've all gone into it 'cause we love the music, and a lot of people end up with nothing at the end of the day, after they've done all of this great music, 'cause they never learned any of the business side.

If you look at something like Spotify, many record labels are investors in the company. So from that standpoint, the money is all going back into the labels.

Music as a business is a dirty thing.

When Pandora doesn't pay, and bars don't pay, and weddings don't pay, and nobody buys CDs or shirts or concert tickets or lessons, then the musician can't make a living making music.

As for the music business itself, the key things have not changed that much. It operates like any business and money still keeps things moving.

If you earned money listening to music, I'd be a millionaire.