Tom Petty Quotes

I certainly wouldn't want a song that I'd already written to be used on a commercial. That seems strange.

I made an enormous amount of money in the record business as a result of owning so much of what I was doing... I owned all those albums and continued to own my catalog.

I have always abhorred the business end of music.

The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Barbra Streisand, Bruce Springsteen, these are just some of the people who threatened to sue if we used their songs.

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.

A lot of people are coming down on people taking old rock 'n' roll songs and making commercials out of them, but from a songwriter's standpoint, I don't mind because it helps pay my rent.

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.

I was worried Microsoft would take my music. But ultimately I talked to the lawyers and I still own it.

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

I never, ever had it in my mind that I wanted to be in the record industry, because I still contend that the record industry is an insidious affair. It's this terrible collision between art and commerce, and it will always be that way.

You make music to change the radio, not make music for the radio.

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

I did not start IC and Inteam to have control over my music. I had control before and after.

I'm the last person that wants to give away music for free.

It's nice if people ask to use your song. You have to make a decision as an artist how you feel about that.

Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it.

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.

Creativity is much better when it's free. Someone can take it and sell it if that's what it needs, and from that standpoint, you have to have a label. If you could make your music and just give it away and somehow make a living - that would be the best scenario.

Artists and the traditional record company model are at odds. The music business has notoriously taken from the artist. That shouldn't be the narrative.

Spotify wants to make consuming music simpler and at the same time pay the rights owners.

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 big thing is I'm not with a major label. I've been independent since the get-go, and I've been very lucky to get some good advice on keeping hold of copyright and that kind of stuff.

What people don't realize is that the initial sales of an album isn't where the bulk of your returns come from. It happens over time, sitting in the catalog, picking up commercials, getting included on packages here and there - there's years and years of pipeline money that goes on. That's where real money comes from - building that body of work.

You come up, you love music, and then business interferes.

I'm not going to put my music up on some little corner of the Internet or give it away for free. What does that do? That's just giving up. I'm not giving up, ever.