Mike Dean Quotes

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

If the radio ever played my music, I would sue them. And they know it, which is why they don't play my music.

To the extent that '60s guys own things, yes... but I don't have the publishing, just like most '60s guys, and that was an error, you know... part ownership in publishing was the kind of era that started a little bit later, when real businessmen started to manage artists.

I would never put my songs in a commercial.

For the first case I did with Octone, 360 deals were not at all being talked about. And then for the follow-up case, it was the focus. I wanted to see how things were changing and what the new challenges were.

I spend all my time right now trying to combat music retail and copyright.

You have major labels that are willing to take unconventional approaches because the old model is crumbling in front of us.

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.

Every time we buy a CD or download a song, the artist is paid for their work. You might not know that this isn't the case when a musician's work is played on the radio.

Major labels act as banks in terms of how they produce and release your album. No major label is really good or bad; they just 100 per cent operate as a business, which makes sense... no hard feelings.

Music is everywhere - you consume it every day, everywhere you go. The content creator should be compensated. It's only fair.

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.

The worst thing about the music business is the business part of it. Business has nothing whatever to do with writing, playing and performing.

One could work on a lot of albums such as 'Thiruvasagam in Symphony,' but with issues such as illegal downloading from the Internet and piracy, it is difficult.

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 come from the school of hip-hop where you just buy records and sample records all the time. Doing that is tough sometimes, because if you get a placement on a major record, your record could get shelved because of clearance issues.

Ever since the decision of Robin Thicke and Pharrell, we believe that it was important to make sure that we are safe. When that Robin Thicke verdict came out, we realized that the game had changed in music.

If you're making a film about a band or a songwriter or whomever, there's a publisher, there's a record label, and there are people who are vested interests in that film. But with back-up singers, because they did stuff for everybody, there's no one party that has any vested interest in seeing the story told.

I know people who have sampled gospel music, and then they go to clear the sample, and it's like, 'You can't take the Lord's music and make this.'

If you look at something like Spotify, many record labels are investors in the company. So from that standpoint, the money is all going back into the labels.

There are a lot of people who really abused sampling and gave it a bad name, by just taking people's entire hit songs and rapping over them. It gave publishers license to get a little greedy.

I left the entertainment industry part of my life behind in 1983, when we decided not to work with major record companies anymore.

If you are a musician and you don't show any interest on the business level then you are actually vulnerable and people will rip you off. They will sweet talk you into anything.

There's this thing called compulsory licensing law that allows artists through the record companies to take your music at will without your permission.

I'm overly excited to finally announce this amazing global partnership deal back home with EMI Music. I know I have mentioned doing music in the past but for legal reasons I was not in a position to release any new music.