Bjork Quotes

It's hard for new artists to keep hold of what they own.

My strongest message is: 'Never give your songs away. Never sign a contract you can't get out of.'

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

Once you put songs out, they're not yours anymore. They're everyone else's.

If somebody makes a record, no matter how many years later it's released, they or their families should be entitled to the proceeds.

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.

When people who are songwriters say 'That's my property and if you give it away for free then I'll lose my incentive,' then, well, good riddance.

Well I know I was contracted to Polydor so they couldn't use my name.

I would never put my songs in a commercial.

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

I'm the only girl songwriter that fights for a lot of things. I fight for songwriting fees, which record labels want you to shut up about.

It's time for artists to take their music back.

A hundred years ago, when Richard Strauss, who has already been quoted and already been heard today, and other creative people, laid the foundation stone for the joint assertion of their rights and interests, they had pioneering work ahead of them in Germany.

In this age when people expect to get their music for free, we have to work out how we can protect the rights of creative artists so they are compensated fairly and that the record business itself remains sound and healthy.

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

I sold my life to Capitol Records; it sucks.

I would make far more money if every song were my own, but I don't write to fill up the album with my songs.

I've never gotten money from most of those records. And I made those records: In the studio, they'd just give me a bunch of words, I'd make up a song! The rhythm and everything. 'Good Golly Miss Molly'! And I didn't get a dime for it.

I don't see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won't pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can't get it.

Being a professional musician doesn't mean you spend 12 hours a day playing music. It means you spend up to 12 hours a day taking care of business, dealing with litigation, with the various characters who've stolen your interests, or fending off hostile lawsuits from former members of the band.

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.

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 I make a song, and it's my song, like 'Lean On,' we're going to make money off the synchs, the Spotify, and we get to headline festivals on it. That's the model I want to explore.