Ahmet Ertegun Quotes

You don't even know are we going to have a career? Are we going to be able to sell records? Are we going to have a label?

I had no idea what awaited me when I took a job with CBS Records, and it was a total surprise to find I had a gift and an ear for music.

After two years in the songwriting world, I wrote 'All About That Bass.' L.A. Reid heard it and signed me as an artist.

Actually, we got signed in November of 2000 with Dreamworks which is the most amazing label. We have friends on other labels and though we are not selling millions of records, yet, they treat us with tons of respect and give us some very good guidance.

No one starts playing my kind of music to make a fortune. But I do want to keep doing what I do and I do want to continue selling records. And I would, eventually, quite like some money.

By the age of 17, for me, we had got an recording contract, and, boom, I was gone.

When we signed Taylor Swift, people said, 'You're signing a 15-year-old female country artist? Good luck!'

We'd been out touring for a couple of years before we signed with Sony and everything.

In 20 years I had sold more records for RCA than any artist except Elvis Presley.

Music reality shows are a good thing, especially for those seeking a career in music.

When I was a teenager, I had a record company after me. They wanted me to be a pop act. They said they wanted me to be the next Sonia. I was 16 at the time. I said, 'No thank you.'

I was kicked off a record label and didn't get picked up again. It was devastating at first because I thought, 'Oh my God. My career is over. What's gonna happen? What am I going to do?' Once I got that I could have a career, a very good career, without having a hit record, then I changed.

To come out in the music business, you only really get one shot. A lot of people get to play small gigs first, and build up that way, without anyone really seeing them.

And you have a record company behind it, this is a key too, you need people to fight for your records, at least a little bit. So if you have a great song, it's catchy, and you've got a little bit of help, I think that's all you need. But there hasn't been that in music.

I'm in a very good place to make records. Needing to make money off music is very dangerous.

Well, I tried to get a record deal in 1966 or '67, and everyone thought I was too eclectic.

I would be a huge hypocrite if I didn't tell you that at one time in my life I thought the way that you made music was you got on a major label and you got famous.

When I was nominated for a Grammy, my label dropped me - I have a wariness about trying for a hit.

I would love to continue working behind the scenes in music - to produce and manage up-and-coming musical talent would be a dream!

I was actually signed at a very young age - I was 12 - and one thing led to another, and I ended up in a mutual split from the label. But it was probably the best thing that could have ever happened, because I was able to kind of leave the industry side of it for a minute and focus on the independent side.

I met Ne-Yo in London. I sang for him and he said, 'I want to sign you.' It was amazing - it meant my name was buzzing around the industry and I got to meet lots of different labels.

Selling records is fantastic. But if you're not loving what you do, and if everybody is throwing knives at you, it can get old very fast.

By the time my first solo record came out, I was making a handsome living as a record producer. I had worked with the Band, Janis Joplin and all of these other artists in the Albert Grossman organization. So as my so-called solo career evolved, I never felt pressure that I had to come back and top when I might've done before.

I came to California and got signed at a young age. And it's not like you see in the movies, where you start rubbing shoulders with Timbaland and Pharrell, and you become a giant pop star.

I was signed to RCA to be a country singer.