Quotes About Industry

The big thing is I'm not with a major label. I've been independent since the get-go, and I've been very lucky to get some good advice on keeping hold of copyright and that kind of stuff.

It's really tough - if you're on a major label and they want you to have a number one song, you need to do what they say.

We as label executives, we have to know the limitations of the artists.

I'm looking at EarDrummers like a boutique label, like an Interscope or a Def Jam.

If you're on an indie label, you're not getting enough money. And if you're on a major, you're not getting enough support.

I'd probably do something that involved music, a booking agent or working at a label, if not being an actual musician.

I was always doing an independent kind of move while I was still with a label. They just stamped it.

The business of a label is to make money - my business is to make music. I'm gonna get paid if I do it right.

Major labels don't want to take chances on cooler, indie kind of things. People only know, unfortunately, what they're being spoon-fed.

I've felt the noose tightening for me for years at the major labels, where you're allowed to do less and less of what you would do most naturally and expected to do something that was expected to be saleable.

Labels don't want artists to put out mixtapes because they don't monetize it.

So So Def has been one of the most successful and consistent labels in the game in the last 10 years.

I think that's the problem in a lot of music. We've got these record labels.

I truly believe, as an institution, most major labels should just die.

When you come off 'The X Factor,' you're more likely to be a failure than a success because people almost want you to fail. There's this kind of feeling that you're separate from everyone else. You get it from artists, people in the industry, people at record labels.

The decline of the major labels has changed the audience. They aren't force-fed by a system any more. They can make their own decisions.

I am a singer first and foremost. I was lucky enough to have a manager, when I was 15, who knew the heads of a lot of record labels at the time.

I got all these books about, like, what you need to know to enter the entertainment industry. And I remember I sent my music to record labels, and I took these little DVDs and sent them all over the place. And either no one got back to me or they just kept saying, 'You're too different.'

I think it's harder for R&B to break in England because the radio and labels don't really know what to do with R&B music.

Major labels don't play with samples not being cleared.

I never used to get calls from artists or labels, but once you have a top 20 hit, you start getting them.

There are just as many dirt bags in independent music as there are in major labels.

I wanted to stay independent because I figured there was no way I was going to be able to have control to create the type of music I want. I was basically ignoring a lot of labels.

People don't know how to reach record labels, and a lot of time labels don't listen to stuff that's sent in randomly.