The hardest part about the music industry for anyone is getting into the ears of the world.
Distributing the music is so easy it's moot. So now the delicate art of calling attention to your music means everything. Marketing is distribution.
We want our music to reach everybody, so we're using the Internet. Every kid today is online, and we want to make sure our songs reach every one of them.
Who were the biggest acts in the world in 1987? Guns N' Roses and Metallica. I shamelessly pandered to surfers and skateboarders, and in pictures from then, you'll see Slash and those guys wearing N.W.A stuff. If they thought it was cool, people in Kansas and Wyoming would buy it. That's how we broached the subject.
The problem with working under an outside label is that your music never seems to reach the right people.
I just want to get my music out and make sure that it's heard in the right way.
As far as I'm concerned, the whole point of making music is to get it heard by as many people as possible.
I come from such a small place, and I've always really thought that if you make good music, then people will find it.
A lot of true Jamaican artists don't understand the importance of radio so tend not to tap into that as a result.
There's consciousness in my music, and my music comes from a conscious place. And when people say that, I certainly take it as a compliment. But my job, in terms of selling my music, is to be universal and to try to get it to everybody.
As long as my music is real, it's no limit to how many ears I can grab.
That's part of the 'MyMusic' idea: things that work online are the things that don't stop. If you go off the air for a long time, there's a concern about losing certain fans and momentum.
More than anything, I want to just have the largest amount of people possible listening to my music. This is the biggest thing to me.
If my music has power, I don't have to hashtag anything. If it has to connect with someone, it will. That has been my experience.
My fan base is really expanding into an inter-generational thing - it's what every artist probably hopes for.
You've gotta really touch people to move them to buy your records.
Television made a lot of difference in country music. It's progress. I believe in progress.
If 'Life in Marvelous Times' can't get on the radio, then I don't need to be on the radio.
At one point, I didn't care. Now I want as many people to hear my music as possible.
You can have the power of your music on your cellphone and reach millions.
If I could just have my music be played for many people no matter what method or way is used, I would reply that that is not the case.
I feel like when I came in the game, I was more focused on like, 'yo how many times can I get on the radio?'
I agree that when you sing for Bollywood, the reach is bigger. But I don't want to concentrate on any industry in particular.
But I never had that commercial opportunity to be played on the radio, so how could I be popular?
You can't really take it for granted that people listen to your music. I want to write songs that are on par, at least in my mind, with the ones I've loved for my whole life and that will be around forever.
