Quotes from Troy Carter

In the future, an artist will be able to perform for the entire world in one date. For the fan, it will be a fully immersive experience - through a pair of glasses or whatever the device.

I come from a place where when you shake someone's hand, it is a deal.

You're basically competing with the same exact product. Coke and Pepsi are at least in different cans. Lyft and Uber drivers are just swapping out the mustache for the U on the dashboard, depending on which one they're getting the call on.

As we look at Hollywood and the controversy around the Oscars, it goes back to the voting block and the lack of people who come from that culture. For example, the NWA movie is a fantastic, fantastic movie. You need people who can look at a piece of art like that and understand the artistry in it.

I like to compare the attitude and energy of an emerging start-up to that of the early hip-hop era. From working at labels like Bad Boy and Ruff Ryders, walking into the Def Jam offices, A Touch of Jazz and things like that, the vibe is that off making something out of nothing and making things work, and that's what I love about start-ups.

Our bet is on the future of micronetworks.

The most successful people in the world are the ones who thought of that idea that was 'too crazy to work.'

Lady Gaga is phenomenal. From the first day I met her, she was lightning in a bottle.

To me, mentorships and internships are two big pillars in business development. I believe in having multiple mentors.

I think piracy itself is going to end up going away.

On the artist side, we made a significant investment in very young artists from the very beginning of their careers and helped them become global superstars.

I invest in black-led startups not because of a sense of charity. I make those investments because of the basic principle of supply and demand and the reality that black entrepreneurs typically lack the network to have their deals become bid up and overvalued.

We look to find partners whose values align with that of our artists. We also look for unique platforms that the potential branding partner can provide. Sometimes that's distribution, and sometimes it's an advertising platform. Each situation is unique.

What's important for that person on the other side of the table, and what's important for the client?

There's less clutter in the beverage category than in the music category. A lot less clutter.

I'm a very commonsense guy - I just look at the viability of the idea, if I feel the team has the ability to execute the idea. I also look at the investment syndicate, the size of the market, and then a lot of gut married on top of it.

In order to continue the growth, we have to go back to embracing technology and the way that people choose to consume music.

Exclusives are bad for artists, bad for consumers, and bad for the whole industry.

Music is one of those businesses in which, if you're talented and hustle hard enough, you can make it - specifically as an entrepreneur. If you look as far back as Berry Gordy, Russell Simmons, Andre Harrell, L.A. Reid, and Sean 'Diddy' Combs, there's a whole lineage of successful black entrepreneurs who have built their own companies from scratch.

I am inspired by the diversity of the entrepreneurs that come into 'Shark Tank' and the ability of the show to reach all Americans.

I stay away from the arts... writing songs, being creative - those are downloads from God. You can't do data analytics on art.

The primary plan is to let the music speak for itself.

The music industry really has to learn a lesson from the tech industry about what scale means at the end of the day and learning how to monetize.

It's always boiled down to the quality of your music and the quality of your deal with whoever's distributing your music: There are artists who sold a lot of records and didn't make money because of their deal, and artists who didn't sell nearly as much who made a great living because they own their masters.