Million Records Quotes

#1. For us, selling a million records in 2005 is the equivalent of selling 2 to 3 million records (five years ago). Rock records aren't flying off the shelves like they used to. Hip-hop and pop are so huge. (But) everything's on the upswing for us.

Jacoby Shaddix

#2. I'm not trying to sound pretentious, but we did sell 12 million records on the first album, so we did get paid a little bit.

Justin Timberlake

#3. We asserted ourselves as a music community, and showed legislators that music is positive. Especially if you've sold 300 million records worldwide and pay taxes.

Krist Novoselic

#4. Amy Winehouse: Did she invent white soul? Wearing a beehive? No. But she did something brand new and fresh, altogether as a package, and you see who's in her wake, from the Duffys to the Lana Del Reys ... Adele selling 20 million records? That would not have happened if Amy Winehouse was alive.

Jack White

#5. We never had a billionaire brand in music; the closest thing we had was Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson sold 750 million records. I think we're gonna set the tone for other youngsters to make more money and see that a billion dollars can be accomplished.

Birdman

#6. China's got a billion people and a hit record over there is a million records. You know that ain't right.

Quincy Jones

#7. You gotta' sell a million records before you talk about getting paid at a major [label].

Betty Wright

#8. With Celine Dion, we were selling 25 million records a pop. 'Pop' stands for 'popular.' It means we're plugging into the masses.

David Foster

#9. You're only famous in the eyes of others. Inside, you're still the same, and not a hundred million records or TV shows can change that. I think the only pitfall of fame is believing that it means something, and behaving like that.

Jamie Cullum

#10. For three years, between 16 and 19, I was the opening-act-for-the-opening-act-for-the-opening-act, you know? And then I was on tour with Ice-T, Stetsasonic, EPMD, Sir Mix-a-Lot - legends - and went on to sell 160 million records. It still baffles me.

Vanilla Ice

#11. I want to be successful. Not just money. Just making a successful record and a successful show. I could feel successful without selling a million records.

Tom Petty

#12. People think about, when you sell a million records, "Oh. You must be buying Ferrari's and living in mansions." It was never really like that.

Kevin Martin

#13. Oh, Michael Jackson is Michael Jackson. And no matter if he sold 40 million records off of one record and sold 15 off his last or whatever the counts may be, Michael Jackson will be Michael Jackson.

Tito Jackson

#14. If I could sell 500 million records every time, it would be great. But I've also had the luxury experience of having it when I was a teenager, in a very kind of model version of it.

Alanis Morissette

#15. When I started playing music, people weren't selling 5 million records. That was not the standard; that was not the focus.

Prince

#16. I have sold 120 million records. Half of those could be in Europe.

Slim Whitman

#17. Nobody heard records of you playing whatever the melody was on those low strings. It worked out good, you know, about 25 or 26 million records later. I guess it worked out alright.

Lee Hazlewood

#18. I would sell 2 million records, a million went to teenagers and a million went to the adults. So, when The Beatles became so popular, I lost a million to the teenagers, but I was still selling a million to the adults.

Bobby Vinton

#19. But now it's kind of a given that a 15-year-old would have a record deal and sell a quarter of a million records. No one's expecting her to answer any deep theological questions. And I'll tell you, I was asked some deep theological questions from the git-go.

Amy Grant

#20. Some musicians like to decorate their walls with discs saying: '1 million records sold in America.' I prefer to put up discs marking sales in lesser-known countries.

Jamie Cullum

#21. Nobody's going to sell 10 million records by not working hard.

Daryl Hall

#22. If you've sold over a million records, you are not punk rock, you are milking the system for everything that it's worth.

Billy Corgan

#23. I wanted to sell a million records, and I sold a million records. I wanted to go platinum; I went platinum. I've been working nonstop since I was 15. I don't even know how to chill out.

Beyonce Knowles

#24. Every artist obviously wants to sell a million records and do the MTV cribs thing, but I'm realistic.

JD Era

#25. The biggest insecurity I had was my singing. Even though I had sold 70 million records, there was this feeling like, I'm not good at this.

Jennifer Lopez

#26. Why do we need to wait until somebody sells 10 million records to give people a show like that? What about us smaller, hungry folk? At least gimme a curtain!

Angie Stone

#27. Nowadays, you have to sell, like, half a million or a million records just to break even.

Maynard James Keenan

#28. Hurricane Katrina reiterated the need for [access to] medical records, ... But there's going to be a lot more needed than $4 million.

Thomas Carper

#29. I'd rather sell 10,000 records that represent me than 2 million that don't represent me at all.

Phillip Phillips

#30. President Obama, by the way, has set a Guinness World Record as the fastest person to get a million Twitter followers. Obama now has as many followers as the Republicans have presidential candidates.

Conan O'Brien

#31. The eighties turned the whole system upside down. They would sign three groups and give them five or ten million dollars each to make three records. Out of those three records maybe one would be a hit. The economy changed, and that's why the music changed.

Tony Visconti

#32. Madonna, eat your heart out, Britney Spears, eat your heart out. I would say we have diamond records coming - they're gonna sell 10-million plus.

Spencer Pratt

#33. I'm kind of proud of that little record! I mean I've heard about a million other records that have come out since then by all these groups around here and there and I really like 'Little Johnny Jewel'.

Tom Verlaine

#34. I waited, and I'm sure Elvis did too, for each Ricky Nelson record like we would a Chuck Berry record or a Fats Domino record, to see what was going on. I used to say to some of the guys that Ricky Nelson learned to sing on million selling records.

Roy Orbison

#35. I was the kind of entrepreneur that never really felt I made it. When Mike Olefield's "Tubular Bells" [Virgin Records' first release] sold 8 or 10 million copies, I suppose, at age 19, I could've possibly retired on the money. Instead, I immediately pushed the boat and took that risk again.

Richard Branson

#36. Just six days after its release on iTunes, a record-breaking 33 million people have already listened to the album.

Eddy Cue

#37. Hillary has already gotten a record $8 million advance from Simon & Schuster for the book
reportedly the most anyone has ever received for rewriting history.

Ann Coulter

#38. The rewards we get by being those weird guys going against the grain to me are way more massive than selling a million billion records. I like climbing mountains or going on undersea dives for whales and stuff like that.

Lupe Fiasco

#39. Some people remaster their records six, seven times, remix it three, four times, spend a million hours, then they always go back and hear a demo of it and they'll say, 'Aw that sounds so much better than the final mix.'

Jack White

#40. I heard a quote once in a documentary about a band that said you're better off owning everything 100 percent and selling 20,000 copies of an album than signing with a record company and selling a million copies. There has never been a truer statement about show business than that.

Bill Burr