Lester Bowie Quotes

I think between The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and innumerable acts after that... rock music became a huge economic force.

A lot of jazz is like that; it sells over a period of time.

Commercial music, for the most part, is popular music and you always have to keep that in mind.

As long as people are buying music, it's good for everybody.

There were a lot of times where there was a great deal of fodder recorded and played, because there was a market for it - just as there is today. And there were more bad bands than there were good bands - I think that should always be remembered.

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

Now, we are selling over 5 million songs a day now. Isn't that unbelievable? That's 58 songs every second of every minute of every hour of every day.

Well, you know, back then there wasn't many albums, it was the singles. You sold singles.

For music, unlike a $500 software program, people are paying a buck or two a song, and it's those dollars and pennies that have to add up to pay for not just the cost of that song, but the investment in the next song.

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

Pop music I have always loved best. But the more extreme, fascist-led examples of the music business I tend to detest the most.

No one listens to CDs anymore. Who even owns a CD? I used to bring my CDs to shows, and it was, like, a guarantee that everyone would buy one. Nope! Not anymore.

'Course, 'Santini' bombed in England, y'know. It came out at the height of the New Wave, which couldn't have been a worse time for a solo singer trying to sell rock melodies.

There's always a market for music.

A song is essentially an 'asset' after its creation and release because it can be traded, sold or rented. This makes it the backbone of earnings in the 'music ecosystem.'

I don't like the way a lot of music is going these days. No one buys it.

Pop was initially ignored as a moneymaker by the recording industry. In the seventies they were still relying on Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett for their big hits. You know, most of the budget for the record companies in those days went to the classical department - and those were big budget albums.

Are there a million people out there who would love a Joey Cook album? I think there probably are.

It used to be OK to have two or three songs out a year - and those are your singles. Now, they don't want that. They're like, 'OK, I heard that. Next!'

I posted some songs on MySpace, and right away people started asking, 'Where can I get a CD?'

I don't need my fans to buy my music. My music is free, basically.

I am perfectly aware of my position in commercial music.

I love mainstream music.

The record business has been so unpleasant and so bad for so long.

It's great to bring urban music to the commercial scene.