Anita Baker Quotes

I rarely have any contact with the artists who cover my songs.

As an artist, you can't expect a producer to just bring you a record. If you walk in and say, 'I want Kanye West's 'Power,' it just doesn't work that way.

There's never been a song that I just wrote and tried to send to an artist.

I'm delighted about the track's success in the sports world, but the frustrating thing is, I don't think I got rich on it. The labels and publishers did very cheap deals on our songs.

The people who are making money are the ones who are writing and singing their own songs.

With Joe Walsh, that was kind of random. I'd written 'Hi-Roller Baby' for myself while I was at Island/Def Jam; literally, four years later, it got cut. Songs can be around for a long time.

I make a lot of money off featuring, doing songs with up-and-coming artists. I can charge someone $10,000 to $15,000 to do one song.

I don't want to have to talk to a lawyer if I want to jam with someone or if I want to sing on someone's album.

I always knew I wanted to create original material, and after having meetings with all sorts of record labels, I decided that Sony was the right place to do it. They knew what I wanted to make and gave me the freedom to express myself.

So, my records really didn't sell, but musicians started picking up on my sound and my songs and cutting my songs and that turned into a gold mine.

I always said, if I got a record deal, I'd want to record the best songs I could, whether I wrote them or not.

Mostly I've never let record companies become involved with my music, which was a very smart thing that my first manager Dave Robinson did, to keep them out of it.

I originally passed on 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head' in 1969, so they gave it to B.J. Thomas.

The whole industry evolves around a great song.

Well, Neighbours wanted to do a song on the show, and they asked me what songs I had. I told them I'd just written this song, called Born to Try, and I had just gone overseas and spoken to some people from Song about it.

It's very easy for people to put out music.

A lot of big whoever producers, they come with a song and they say, 'Sing this,' and I'm not that girl.

Honestly, when I got to Hollywood I was trying to sell my songs.

I didn't need to borrow money from the record company, because if I had my own publishing company, and I had my own writers, I'd have enough to get and do whatever I wanted to do.

Songwriters, you have to work - you have to wait for residuals. You have to pray that the song's going to be a hit. And then a year later, you might get a check.

I'm really excited because Interscope is really focused on artists. They've been working side by side with me creatively and allowing me to make a lot of the creative decisions, which you don't always hear about. That's why I didn't want to sign originally with a major label.

I know that the music industry has changed, but I'd love it if Adele and John Legend would write me songs.

I believe in full albums, and whatever comes out of those full albums will come.

It's important to know the ins and outs of the music business, but you can also dive too deeply into it and forget that you're really here to make music.

When you get a song placed with two of the top stars in the world, like Rihanna and Eminem, especially as a new writer, they're gonna take a huge chunk of your publishing. That's just the way the business is. I'm not complaining.