Lil Romeo Quotes

The new artist is meeting the general public before they meet the record company. They're able to put the material on YouTube and have a million views before they even meet an executive at a record company, and get the deal based on that.

You no longer have to have a big record label behind you and have to kowtow to the politics that enabled you to get there. You can be a phenomenal artist and put your stuff out there on YouTube and find yourself becoming a star.

The possibilities are endless now, with performing, getting your music online, getting your own website and getting your music out there. I think that's very cool and amazing.

That's my favorite subject because it really levels the playing field for artists these days. You don't have to sell out to the record company. You don't have to get a five hundred thousand dollars, or whatever, and pay them back for the rest of your life to record a record.

'Love Tattoo' I recorded without a record company. I'd gotten turned down by the record companies - they said they didn't get me, which is fine, I suppose.

Now the music industry is sort of like a Craigslist venture, right? Where you're making your own records and selling them online.

People always ask why I stay in the online space versus going to TV or film, like most people would do, and the answer is that there's opportunity for innovation online - not only innovation in storytelling, but also innovation in how you interact with your audience and that is very fulfilling to me personally.

Basically, the Internet is just the way now. It's the end-all, be-all of self-promotion. It's not like you got to burn CDs and pass them out or sell them. The Internet is a tool that reaches billions and billions of people. It's like a no-brainer to tie it in with self-promotion, or even label promotion.

YouTube - holy cow! - I can do my career at my own pace. I didn't have anybody to tell me I wasn't ready, and I learned how to self-market and how to strategize. 'Spontaneous Me' had already been up on iTunes, but besides my mom and grandma, no one bought it. Once it was up on YouTube, it went crazy.

When I was working on 'Coloring Book,' I knew that I wanted it to be a beacon for independent artists and music makers with their own agenda.

I feel like Soulja Boy was one of the smartest when it came to connecting with your fans and taking that to another level.

Whatever the download thing has done to the game, you as an artist can get yourself out there to the masses, off your own back.

I've been trying to do this music stuff and work it out for so long... I was like, 'Let's do it for ourselves.' All these songs, we've travelled the world - no record label, nothing. We just did this for us, but the love is very appreciated.

I honestly believe going independent is the future. Social is changing, Spotify is changing, everything is changing.

I feel like it's social media that's opened that door. We're able to accumulate and generate our own fan base. Once we do that and put our own work in, labels take notice that we have our own following.

I wasn't into social media at all, but when I decided I was going to put out my own music, I said, 'Okay, I'm just going to post it.' And that's when it started its rounds on the Internet, and people started to take an interest in me.

I was always putting songs on the Internet, but I was never into pushing them on anyone.

One of the things that's funniest about the entertainment industry and comedy is that people go 'Oh, you're great, but I don't know what to do with you.' The great thing about the Internet is that nobody has to figure out what to do with you. You can figure out what to do with you, and you can say, 'I made this thing, and I'm going to put it out, and now if people want to come see me and buy things from me they can.'

The Internet wasn't even an option for me, so one of the reasons I was so motivated to do street art was because there was no other outlet. Maybe if the Internet had been around then, I would have tried to do stuff that went viral and was clever and got me a lot of hits.

I think what I've learned to focus on is my music, and that's why I made my record independently.

When we first started in '04 or '05, that's when social media started to become a way to release music and connect with fans - and our fans were kind of at the forefront of that.

You can put your music out on YouTube and get messages from all over the world.

Actually, it's the beauty of independent music that the artist can feature in his own videos and be the face of it. It is unlike Bollywood movies, where one does playback singing.

Albums are great but for an artist like me, I don't think albums are the way to go.

I wanted to go back to writing for myself and my fans. I built my own recording studio, started my own label, and decided to use the Internet to sell my records.