Sir Mix-a-Lot Quotes

Now the music industry is sort of like a Craigslist venture, right? Where you're making your own records and selling them online.

A lot of people see a Nissan ad and they see a finished product in a record store or on iTunes and that's the face of the band.

It's so different now coming out as a new artist today than it was when I came out almost ten years ago. Now, it's all about singles, it's really quick, it's online. I came out when people sold records and they still do today but - I don't know what the key is.

The new artist is meeting the general public before they meet the record company. They're able to put the material on YouTube and have a million views before they even meet an executive at a record company, and get the deal based on that.

The desire to hit a big home run is dominating the music business.

Music is so hard. It's a struggle to get people to care. It's hard to make an impact in today's world because people aren't buying records anymore.

Unless I've got Katy Perry on the cover of my CD, it's going to be tough to sell a lot of records.

YouTube provides a unique opportunity for all musicians to market and promote their music and directly engage their fans.

I just want to keep saturating the market and radio with as many hit records as I can.

Nowadays, you have to sell, like, half a million or a million records just to break even.

Those 'Pledge' records did good for me, and they're the foundation that this Killer Mike is built on, but I was judging myself on physical sales and didn't understand that music sales were declining overall.

I just wanted to have my own dynasty. I wanted my own Cash Money or Roc-A-Fella. Outside of that, I also wanted my own media company.

I wanted to go back to writing for myself and my fans. I built my own recording studio, started my own label, and decided to use the Internet to sell my records.

But I can say that the business has changed drastically since I started at 8 years old. Everything from the way you tour to how you make a record and how you release the music.

I think the process of 'I Love It' becoming such a big song opened my eyes to sides of the industry that I'd never been aware of, which I wasn't so into.

I could always play the drums, so I have some musical talent, but I don't live in Atlanta or LA, so I can't just randomly bump into major artists. So instead, I started building my fan base and my name by networking through the internet. Mostly through Twitter, Youtube, Instagram and Facebook.

When I first started blogging, it was about getting out new music and capturing artists working in the studio. This was before artists were so social. They weren't so hands-on then.

You gotta' sell a million records before you talk about getting paid at a major [label].

That's my dream job, to be able to mail songs out to people who want to hear them. Paste my face on them and not travel all over the world trying to sell them.

We are a business, and you do a little of what you think's right, pay your bills, and attract... a single record attracts attention to your concerts and your albums.

While I used to make my living principally as a record producer, as time went on, I had to depend more and more on my live performances because of the evolution of the record industry, which has de-emphasized what made it possible to make a living.

It's called 'I Wanna Thank You,' and I'm encouraging everybody out there to blog, Tweet, Facebook, anything about it. Let's sign a petition. The petition is called 'Busta Rhymes Make 'I Wanna Thank You' Your First Single.'

There are three things we need to do for a band. We need to make a great record; we need to get the record played; and we need to find an audience for the live shows.

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.

The music industry is saying, This is the format, and if you'll fit into this format, you can be on radio, and if radio will play you, MTV will expose you, and MTV will expose you, we'll sell records.