Music Industry Challenges Quotes

The music business is a place where the artists are all treated like we're working for the people who are working for us. That can obviously be exaggerated when you're a female.

There's a lot of good rappers in England at the moment. There's a lot of good dance acts. A lot of good, young guitar acts. I think a lot of groups came from that dole culture of the late 80's/early 90's - it's not as easy now. I think there's a dearth of working class bands.

When people lose their jobs, they can either get another job or be entrepreneurs. In the music industry, a lot of people have attempted the latter by starting their own labels, but in the age of digital downloads, it's very difficult to succeed.

Record labels today are much less patient: Artists have a bad record, and they're gone.

I don't particularly like working with girlbands because it's very hard to find a girlband that all get on.

I did a record with Janet Jackson, and it went to the top of the charts, and we had all of these complications, and she couldn't be in the video and couldn't do anything for the record. I went through something similar with Pitbull. I think it works really well for a lot of other artists, but for me, it just doesn't work that well.

The way the music industry is now geared, it's fewer accolades towards new and upcoming acts. New bands offer bright creativity. It's a set format. A venue would rather hire a DJ than a band, and that's a problem.

There's a certain sense of ownership that the fans have over you....The thing is, it's all good. You just have to get used to it. If somebody comes up to you while you're eating dinner or something, it's kind of like, 'Well, I asked for it.' It's much better than the alternative-nobody caring and nobody buying your music. The point is to try to just realize that these people are really excited, and that's a good thing. You want them to be that way.

The music industry has always been a beast, which would eat you up and spit you out.

The Internet is the wrong direction for music.

I don't think that the real enemy of the music industry is illegal downloading; I think the real enemy of the music industry is radio.

I think I've always felt as a band and as a musician and a music business person, I've always felt like an outsider, period.

Does it bother me that some people are burning their own System CDs and taking money out of my pocket? Not really. This has always been about putting the best possible version of the song in the fans hands. It was like selling an artist's painting before he had finished it.

The fact that file sharing goes on, and is as popular as it is, is an incredibly positive thing for the music industry. The fact is that music is so popular that people are willing to break the law to get it.

In a time where everything's a flavor of the month, and it's hard to have any sort of longevity, I've been able to sell records still. I want to be the guy that stands out there and says thank you personally to everyone. And I try after my shows and kick it because I want to genuinely say thanks.

Just to be able to release an album back in the day when I came out was very gratifying. Most people were not given the opportunity.

I knew how the suits used to talk about the artists, with barely concealed contempt. So I knew what was waiting for me round the corner. Because I wasn't one of those very unusual people like Neil Diamond or Elton John, whose careers just seem to span the decades. I knew I wasn't one of them.

You already past 21 and you still talking about "I'ma be a rapper." You ain't did one show, niggas ain't seen you on TV. So Kendrick kind of went through the same thing I went through. He just had his mom's house to go to.

I can tell for sure, the technologists have made it clear that they don't care about musicians. The arts have been sacrificed on the altar of technological advancement.

Six months is the most you can ask of any fan in this day and age, with the Internet and all these new artists. I understand that my music is in a lot of mediums. Some people want me to make an R&B album. Some people want me to never sing again. I just don't want people to be able to draw comparisons between my old songs and my new ones.

I get more respect from rap artists than I do from my own industry. I don't always write the kind of music that country executives want. Rappers are like that too .. my words come from the street, and their words come from the street. That slicked-up pop stuff doesn't come from the street, it's all pre-fab.

The reality of the music industry is that I was a 22-year-old college graduate who was able to walk into boardrooms and be the one in charge. It's incredibly empowering. I wasn't ready - I definitely was not ready - but I was prepared as I possibly could have been because I had studied the music industry.

The internet is a great thing but the worst thing that it brought to the music business was piracy and it's made making stuff available really difficult.

Doin' music, musicians and artists, we have the advantage of doin' something that is our passion. At the same time it's fun, and it's like a dream to other people, and live off it, feed yourself off of it. 'Cause it's hard, you know what I"m sayin'? You really gotta grind and you really gotta love and enjoy what you do, if you're gonna make it. 'Cause if you don't believe in yourself, if you don't got people believin' in you, people aren't gonna buy it.

It does feel like sometimes that I'm the outcast. Hip-hop doesn't want to mess with me because I'm Christian and Christian music doesn't want to mess with me because I'm hip-hop.