Michael Rapino Quotes

Mostly I've never let record companies become involved with my music, which was a very smart thing that my first manager Dave Robinson did, to keep them out of it.

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.

If you have good songs and a real desire to make music, the next thing to do, instead of approach record companies, is to get yourself a really good manager because then it allows you to focus on your profession of being a musician. Then they can focus on the darker art of the record label and the music industry.

I'm from Israel, so America has no limits. I started a record label, and then I started managing other artists, like Liza Minelli.

I have an independent record label called Favored Nations on which I released an album by an artist called Johnny A, who plays an arch top Gibson through a Marshall, but the tone is all in his fingers.

Then l learned to play guitar and l started writing songs and my mother formed for me a publishing business, so we started publishing and managing artists.

I wanted to produce Nancy LaMott's albums, so I created my own record company.

I'm developing artists for my new record label, my son's band, Intangible, being one of them.

I'd always been a club kid, so I was totally unaware that people had their own record companies.

My passion is music, you know, and music influences culture, influences lifestyle, which leads me to 'Roc-A-Wear'. I was forced to be an entrepreneur, so that led me to be CEO of 'Roc-A-Fella' records, which lead to Def Jam.

After giving countless hit songs, I felt saturated. I decided to do music only for my own films and music albums. And so, I decided to start my own music label.

I realized how important it was to have a good team - manager, attorney and label. It's not just about putting out a record and somebody signing you.

Dave Matthews, Tim McGraw, U2, The Rolling Stones - there are a lot of artists selling out stadiums around the world that we work with regularly. And end up making most of our money with those artists.

Getting a record deal is a meaningless thing now.

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

I had to get out of my record deal that I signed with my previous band and get a full solo record deal going so, with all of the paperwork that, that entails it did take a while.

The new independent spirit at Warner Music is a perfect fit for a stand-alone label like Maverick.

One of the reasons I started Tzadik, which is my own label, is to keep things in print. I got tired of labels dropping things out of print when they don't sell.

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.

My original idea was to produce and not make records myself.

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.

We turned what is virtually a glorified independent label into one of the powerhouse labels in the town.

The whole industry evolves around a great song.