Even an independent label is looking for a hit, they're not looking for a record that's not gonna do well.
I like all music. Well, I don't like music that was created to make money. I don't really like bands that don't write their own music.
I'm in a very good place to make records. Needing to make money off music is very dangerous.
It's always the music first for me. But if the music isn't selling, there isn't gonna be no business. So you gotta make sure music is always the first priority.
They wouldn't play my records on American radio because I had spiky hair. They said, 'Punk rock doesn't sell advertising, it won't make any money.'
I know acts and I'm not going to name names but these people sold ten million copies the first time and the second album sells three million and it's considered a failure and they're dropped and that's really a shame.
The success of Watermark surprised me. I never thought of music as something commercial; it was something very personal to me.
Black music has become a commercial commodity. Live performances are not so accessible as they were previously. It use to be possible to go to the bar on the corner and hear music. It was available for a fifteen cent beer.
Our job in gospel is not going away. It's a sustainable genre. It sells - without question.
I think no matter how you think about your music, you're ultimately in the music 'business.' I think you have to be business-minded in some sense. And for me, the real goal... is positive intention and social change through music. It doesn't mean that can't turn a profit.
The making of music is profoundly affected by the market.
If I put a value on my music, and no one's prepared to pay that, then more fool me, but the idea that the value is created by the consumer is an idiot plan; it can't work.
Music as a whole industry is growing exponentially, but in terms of the actual music file, when you look at the actual value there, to me, 'The Beatles' catalog should be worth more than Spotify.
Record companies don't think creatively about what something could possibly be because they are not filled with creative people. Nobody's looking at the future of music because they're concentrating so hard on what they can get from it right this second. It's really hard to see an artist; it's a lot easier to see money.
As music became more profitable in the 1990s, it seemed like it attracted a lot of people who were just interested in the financial aspect of it, which is depressing.
