Artist Control Quotes

As a new artist there are so many new ways to put music out there where you don't necessarily need a label because now labels will have their hands in your pocket and leave you with less control.

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

The music industry the last 120 years has been insane. It's just continual chaos. So it's not unusual that something like the Internet comes around, but as one door closes another one opens, and that certainly is the case where now, artists can have a lot of control over how they display to the world, all at once, their new record.

There is no line of demarcation between the amateurs and the pros; everyone is using the same tactics and playing in the same arenas. The only thing that separates them is radio, but the artist doesn't control who goes to radio and who doesn't.

As an independent artist, you control the means of production, which is the ultimate form of empowerment.

Over the years, I've had fairly benign record companies who gave me a lot of rope, but in spite of that, there's still restrictions and expectations. It's nice to be at the cottage-industry size, which I think is kind of the business model of the age anyway. It's the way to be. The Internet makes a lot of that possible. Having a loyal fan base is also very useful to keep me operating; people can find your website, and the venues that you're playing at, the merchandise you have for sale, all that kind of stuff. It's great to be able to reach the audience in a more direct way.

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.

With Ghost Tunes, you just try to do what's right. And what's right is whatever the copyright owner wants to do with their music, they do it.

Artists have so much more control of their futures - they don't need to rely so much on major labels or big companies to help them. You have artists like Skrillex that can dominate so much that he gets 5 Grammy nominees, and he's clearly an underground artist.

I think the big studios shaped and formed the artists that they put under contract.

Any artist manages his own business along with his manager. Every band should.

Producers don't really have any authority because you are paid by the artist, and if they choose to ignore you, they can. Your power only hangs by the tiniest thread. If you pull it too hard it will snap.

Puffy produced four of the tracks on the album. Those are the four songs that are collaborations between Puffy and me. And he gives me my space to work even when we work together, like with my producer and my vocal coach.

I did my first album with my own record label.

The reason I do interviews is because I'm protecting my songs.

Ticketmaster does not set prices. Live Nation does not set ticket prices. Artists set ticket prices.

I want to be in control of how my music is released and how I create it. What people don't talk about when they talk about major labels is how many artists get dropped or funding gets dropped when they don't recoup quick enough.

I was never your average artist, happy to do whatever the record company told me.

As an artist you very much want to have control over your dialogue and your image and when you become exposed in a way where other people are manipulating your brand or the public perception of you that's where it can be frustrating. It's when you want to tell everyone to shut the f*** up and say "hear it from me, not from them." That's all.

The nature of the music industry is changing. People are getting famous on Youtube. I felt I had the advantage of having a following. My fans know what I do and who I am. The independent world gives me more hands on with day to day handling of what needs to be done.

I do have what I believe to be a two-CD, authentic, 'Carter V' final product mixed down. Nobody knows what 'Tha Carter V' is. In fact, nobody can say until Lil Wayne says, 'This is 'Tha Carter V.''

Videos have to go hand in hand with your music, so that's why, ultimately, they should be created by the artist. And if they're not, it doesn't really add up to me.

I see hip-hop as going in a self-managing place. It's very culturally controlled and artist-controlled. It's not really based on a label anymore. Everything is pretty much in the control of the artist. Which is amazing.

I never solicited a major label and I certainly wouldn't now.

The big, big record labels have so much control. I think too much control that it actually made their artists scared to not do what they were told and then the music suffers because of that dynamic and now there's the power of the download.