Ezra Koenig Quotes

You could be Top 5 on iTunes, but for people to buy an album, they've got to have a connection with an artist. Every time I bought someone's album, it was about the connection. I was loving everything, from their raps to their style. I wanted to meet them.

It's a sad state when more people retweet than buy records.

Record sales don't really mean anything. For us, the pressure is imagining some 15-year-old kid in Cincinnati who buys our album and doesn't feel like he wasted his pocket money.

I can still make a living with touring. And maybe you buy a t-shirt. And I would rather 10 million people get my record and listen to it for free than 500,000 that I coerced to pay $15 for it, you know?

Napster is great so long as they put out tracks on there that have been officially released. I don't really mind people downloading my music; I also see it as a compliment. And if you are a real music lover, you want to have the original CD anyway 'cause then you feel more connected to the artist.

Keep doing what you do, and people that enjoy what you do are gonna buy your music and love on you.

Every generation of rock musician will understand that we wouldn't be anywhere without the support of teenagers buying the records.

I'm making music for the people. If y'all love the music, y'all gonna buy the music.

Look: I download music illegally, if I really want it. But I always then buy the record - I support art.

Mick Jagger's fans bought records with their allowances. Sinatra's people bought them out of wages.

I grew up in an era where the record companies just sold records to everybody, and the whole family bought songs.

I want people to really care when I release an album.

I want my fans to listen to my music. Period.

The streets buy records, but they don't really buy records in incredible numbers.

The fact of the matter is that 40 years ago, unless you bought the record, you couldn't hear the music. It was such a narrow track in comparison to today.

My idea is that artists should make their music available for free, and fans should only pay for it if they really like it.

It's important for country fans to know that I'm not just trying to come in and take their money for a CD.

But I also think it's up to the fan base to call in the radio stations and demand that the more mature artists be played as well.

If we play to first time Blink 182 listeners, it's good they are listening to us and not the Backstreet Boys. Old Fans or new fans, it's all the same to us.

I don't have a Madonna-sized fan base, so I can actually e-mail and talk to everyone that e-mails me because I am totally appreciative, and I like my fans! They seem to have the same interests as me. They are kind of nerdy and cool - and have good taste, obviously.

All of the sudden the audiences started getting younger and the spread of the attendance was really wide. I think it's as a result of the records selling more that they started following our careers.

If people had good albums, they'd be buying albums. But people are buying singles because they only have good songs.

D.C. is one my largest audiences. They buy tons of records of mine in Washington, D.C.

When radio stations started playing music the record companies started suing radio stations. They thought now that people could listen to music for free, who would want to buy a record in a record shop? But I think we all agree that radio stations are good stuff.

Thank God kids love following an artist. When you get a group who pop, it's the best thing in the world.