Steve Miller Quotes

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.

I guess I've learned that there's really no such thing as a bad label, there is only a bad contract.

I would never put my songs in a commercial.

Music can be so disturbing and frustrating. I mean the business side of it. The actual making music part is fun, but the business side of it is just so out of control, has nothing to do with anything.

I don't get involved in record label politics.

I think we have to bottom out. When the studios jump out of the ring, perhaps the artist can get back in.

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

I have always abhorred the business end of music.

You learn at a certain point that you have to focus on the business side of music. After getting ripped off a couple of times, you figure out that you need to get a grip on it.

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

Most artists have contracts directly with the record company, and when they do music, all of their music is owned by the record company. But I did mine through a production company.

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.

If you wanna make money in music, you're better off being on the business end of it a lot of the time. And also as a musician, if you do make money, it means you had to bite and scratch and kick the whole way to not get ripped off, because at every corner, there's somebody there waiting to trip you up and take a bigger chunk.

Our first manager really pushed that we not sell our publishing rights, which is one of the earliest things an artist will do: They'll sell in order to get a cash advance.

For the longest time, I was uninterested in dealing with EMI Records.

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.

I'm just not into the shady side of the music industry. Give credit where credit's due.

It's called the music business. We've all gone into it 'cause we love the music, and a lot of people end up with nothing at the end of the day, after they've done all of this great music, 'cause they never learned any of the business side.

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.

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.

Even if I don't release it myself, somebody else might hear it and want to record it. When you write a song, it gives it that potential.

The record company stay out of my way. Whenever the record is finished, they take it.

I certainly don't want to be a record label guy.

The reason I do interviews is because I'm protecting my songs.