Regina Spektor Quotes

I'm not just going to get a deal; I'm going to get the deal. And in my deal I got by signing with No I.D. to Def Jam, I got full creative control, the money was great, the contract was good, and I got to create the album that I wanted.

Labels fund things and have resources for you to use. But just because you sign doesn't mean you sign yourself away so they can then tell you what to do. You need to have a plan yourself before they do.

You don't want the biggest record deal as far as money goes, you just want to make sure that the people at the label really support your band and the music and stuff.

To set the record straight for the God knows millionth time, we certainly didn't sign to Atlantic just for the money.

I wanted out of my record deal with EMI. They wanted me to record one type of album; I wanted to record the type of music I wanted to make.

Finally, my manager negotiated a deal where I got to produce my own records.

Every musician in the known universe has signed a bad piece of paper, myself included. But it's really very simple. You're the artist. It's your picture that's going on the CD cover, nobody else's. Protect yourself. Get a good lawyer. You'll kick yourself later if you don't.

I don't agree with the way labels are set up. I don't agree that anyone should sign 360 deals or sign away their publishing or take most of the infrastructure that's included in a formal deal.

I've made sure that in any situation and with any record label, I'm allowed to write my own music.

You can be more creative when you're not feeling like a slave. When you're on a record label, they have you like that.

We make sure we have total artistic control with our albums. We were working with Interscope Records, and they had a hard time with us having all the control. So when we signed with Warner Bros., we told them we would be working hands-on with our producer, and they were cool with it.

I'm 100 percent in control of my artistry, music, and finances.

My strongest message is: 'Never give your songs away. Never sign a contract you can't get out of.'

I've been offered things from alot of different labels and stuff like that, but it's just like, it has to be perfect. I'm not going to sign my life away.

You sign your life away, basically, when you sign a record deal, and if you have a platinum album, then you go back in and renegotiate.

I find it so funny how people that don't write the music, and have no involvement in it, can make such huge decisions on behalf of artists.

I decided to do whatever I could to make sure the business side of music didn't intrude on the creative part.

When you have the kind of success 'Minecraft' has brought, you can just choose yourself the way you want to do things.

I base a lot of decisions on my gut, and going with an independent label was a good one.

My ambition is we want artists to be able to afford to create the music they want to create, and if it takes them five years to sit down and make the album they want to make, they should be able to afford that. That's my goal.

A writer who doesn't need the money gains power and is dangerous in a negotiation.

I mean, being a solo artist is very different than being a member of a band. It's absolutely different. The whole situation is very different - situations where you can't really compare, it's so very different. But I found happiness.

I had to beg to get out of my contract with Capitol. They wanted me to work with big producers. I wanted to produce my music, and they weren't having that. I'm sure they were happy to let me go. I just didn't want to do what they wanted me to do.

I was never your average artist, happy to do whatever the record company told me.

I just wanted to do my own albums where nobody could tell me what to do. Roc Nation was the perfect fit because I could do what I wanted to do.