Record Label Quotes

#1. I once worked at a record label called London Records. The company was owned by Roger Ames, one of the most successful figures in the British music industry. Roger always placed a value on loafing, on holidays, on not being in the office all the time.

John Niven

#2. I was kicked off a record label and didn't get picked up again. It was devastating at first because I thought, 'Oh my God. My career is over. What's gonna happen? What am I going to do?' Once I got that I could have a career, a very good career, without having a hit record, then I changed.

Thelma Houston

#3. If you ever want to know why I'm not on a record label, look at 'The X Factor!' Honestly, of all the people that strive to break barriers in music and do good things and write great lyrics, not one of them would ever pass the first round on any of these competitions.

John Lydon

#4. My first record wasn't even with the Fugees. I was signed to Big Beat Records, so I was signed back in 1989 to the label that the Knocks are on now. You can always tell which generation had the pulse based on how they see things.

Wyclef Jean

#5. People are like, 'Wow you started your own record label,' and treat me like I'm some sort of innovative genius, when I'm not at all. You've got the Internet and music - you put them together, and people hear your music.

Courtney Barnett

#6. I have an independent record label called Favored Nations on which I released an album by an artist called Johnny A, who plays an arch top Gibson through a Marshall, but the tone is all in his fingers.

Steve Vai

#7. I was signed to a record label when I was younger. I was in a group, and I just wasn't - personally, I wasn't ready to get out there. I don't know. It was a pop group. Not like the Spice Girls, but when you don't have any control over anything, it's disheartening.

Tika Sumpter

#8. There's this idea of a star, and this person is very aloof and writes all the music, and they don't talk to anyone unless they go through the record label. And I always felt very uncomfortable about that.

Imogen Heap

#9. I've had big record label presidents look me in the face and say, 'Your music sucks, you don't know who you are, your music is all over the place, and we don't know how to market this stuff. Pick a lane and come back to us.'

Bruno Mars

#10. I'm from Israel, so America has no limits. I started a record label, and then I started managing other artists, like Liza Minelli.

Gene Simmons

#11. I think the people at my record label know I'm a Christian and again, I've been really blessed that I've never had to get into a head-butt war over moral standards or anything like that.

Jonny Lang

#12. If it's a good record or a good recording, then word of mouth will build for that reason, not before the fact, not before anyone's heard it, not because of MySpace or the label.

Spencer Krug

#13. If you're an artist trying to put out your own record on your own label, it's hard to get a distribution deal because no one wants to sign a deal with one entity. They want to sign distribution deals with labels, who have lots of product, lots of artists.

Aimee Mann

#14. I wanted to put out a solo record because I was stuck on a major label and sick of it.

Shirley Manson

#15. I tried to work with a record label; I tried to work with a booking agency, variety shows. I went to Vegas. I just tried everything I could think of, and nothing took. No one thought there was a place for my style and my music; it was just too different.

Lindsey Stirling

#16. I've made sure that in any situation and with any record label, I'm allowed to write my own music.

Taylor Swift

#17. We have to wake up early and make songs everyday. I run my record label. You work at hours where your body isn't designed to work. But it's fun.

A-Trak

#18. With the Beatles, we'd been very spoiled because we had George Martin who worked for the record label we were going to be signed to. That was very fortunate, because we grew together.

Paul McCartney

#19. There's a pianist out of Boston who made a beautiful record for the Fresh Sound label called 'Sketch Book'; his name is Vardan Ovsepian

Brad Mehldau

#20. I started touring a little bit in 1973 in support of a record I made for an independent label. In 1975, when I signed with Warner Bros., where I remained happily ensconced for the next 24 years, my touring activity increased considerably.

Michael Franks

#21. Well, we were originally called Huey Lewis and the American Express. But on the eve of the release of our first record, our record label, Chrysalis Records was afraid that we'd be sued by American Express.

Huey Lewis

#22. Friends of friends had bands in college or in their early 20s and had a moment where they had some kind of interest from a record label or manager. It's always interesting how people handle those decisions and those moments.

Noah Baumbach

#23. I was signed to a record label at the same time as my friend Elliot Murphy, who makes great records to this day.

Bruce Springsteen

#24. I signal with an independent label, Continuum. After that I put out a totally independent record, sold fourteen thousand of them from my basement, bought a house, started raising my kid, made a decent living.

Kid Rock

#25. It became a question of do I want to be on a label where it could take three years to put out a record instead of putting out three records over the same period of time on my own.

Matthew Sweet

#26. There's a Nina Simone record that I love, 'Live at Vine Street,' and she sings flat on it. I can imagine she might've told the record label, 'Oh, God, you're not releasing that!' But I'm glad they did.

Damien Rice

#27. As a label, you have to treat every group and every record as a unique entity. I think that that has been our success, rather than relying upon a fan base.

Greg Ginn

#28. For Nirvana, putting out their first major-label record was like getting into a new car. But the runaway success was like suddenly discovering that the car was a Ferrari and the accelerator pedal was Krazy Glued to the floorboard.

Michael Azerrad

#29. Originally, after 'Tambourine' came out, another record was supposed to come out, but I had issues with my record label at the time, which was Interscope. We couldn't agree on a record, so that took some time. I had to leave them and find a new label.

Eve

#30. I hate how I've had the mantle set on my shoulders as being against the record label. We've had some issues, but that is the nature of business.

Sheryl Crow

#31. I left my record label, Polydor, by mutual agreement, but I'm going to carry on with my singing career.

Alex Parks

#32. My record label is treating me like I'm a new artist, which is exciting after all this time.

Rosanne Cash

#33. Musically, between me and my fans and also me and my team, who between management and record label have always just let me be me, it's fun to pave a path. It's fun to feel like you're doing things your own way. So in that regard I haven't had to worry about any bar but my own.

Josh Groban

#34. You can now be a master of your own destiny. I'm not sure why you would sign up with a record label.

Sean Parker

#35. Nine Inch Nails was born out of Cleveland, Ohio, with me and a friend in a studio working on demos at night. Got a record deal with a small, little label, went on tour in a van, and a couple years later found that somehow we touched a nerve, and that first record resonated with a bunch of people.

Trent Reznor

#36. Some people choose to go on 'American Idol' or another singing contest, and some people choose to beat down barrooms before anyone even knows who they are, in order to get a fan base, so when they do get a record deal, they have that to put in front of a label.

Jake Owen

#37. When the label came to me to say, 'would you like to do another record,' I said, 'Well I got these sixteen songs sitting here, so let's do it.' And that was pretty much it ... I never stopped writing, it's just the way that the business is now; you just try to find a different model.

Brian McKnight

#38. I don't get involved in record label politics.

Leona Lewis

#39. After we wrote The Wreckoning, our record label did listen.

Taryn Manning

#40. When I did the record, I was coming off a time when my contract had been sold and the music industry had changed a lot. I didn't understand how to make records for big labels. I was waiting for a new kind of record label to emerge.

Matthew Sweet

#41. We recorded that trio and it's out on the Knitting Factory label. I've got another record in the can with that group and Marc, which I'll hopefully finish some time before next summer.

Arto Lindsay

#42. The band has always been such a huge part of my life and it kept me very busy. That, in combination with something like running a record label, just means my whole life revolves completely around metal music and I can't do that anymore.

Blake Judd

#43. When you become a commodity to a record label because you're making them millions of dollars, you can take all of your artistic integrity and throw it out the window.

Mark McGrath

#44. I've always had a love for poetry and when I got signed to a record label I thought, 'How odd that I'm doing a record before a book of poetry,'

Jewel

#45. My style when I was 17 was very low-key with jeans, T-shirts, and Converse. I was signed to a major record label by then, so I had stylists helping me.

Michelle Branch

#46. Nowadays, it's a lot more in the kids hands. You don't really need a record label. You can get the money together yourselves. You can just do it through Myspace. There are bands that are huge, without record labels today. Now, I think it's a lot more, in kids hands.

Mattew Nicholls

#47. I heard the Bloc Party record Japan before it came out in the UK as they are on the V2 record label. I think it has a great vibe and has great songs. I also think the Kings of Leon are right up my street.

Kelly Jones

#48. I want to invest and have my own record label and artists. I want to have a business where my kids, kids, kids will still have something going on long after I'm gone.

Chingy

#49. What made me want to become a recording artist; I was the first artist that was repeatedly asked by a label to record with them. That label was Def Jam Records.

Chuck D

#50. You don't want the biggest record deal as far as money goes, you just want to make sure that the people at the label really support your band and the music and stuff.

Adam Rich

#51. I can't believe I got a major-label record deal. My music was quirky, and my voice was so odd and high and girlish, it was like a weird novelty act.

Juliana Hatfield

#52. I miss how a record label can help spread the word that you have something out.

Trent Reznor

#53. It's an album that is a little bit different and probably isn't easy to get out. It's not likely that a major label would have picked it up and said that they had a smash hit record.

Billy Sherwood

#54. We have meetings with our record label to tell them how to market us.

Adam Jones

#55. I think that every record label has its trials and tribulations, its ups and downs. The only thing you can do is hope to recognize what it is that makes you great, and to try and continue to capture it.

El-P

#56. I learned how to take other people's mechanisms of promoting their stuff through me as opposed to promoting my own stuff, as far as getting Snoop DeVilles, SnoopDeGrills, Snoop Doggy Dogg biscuits, Snoop Dogg record label, Snoop Dogg bubble gum, Snoop Youth Football League.

Snoop Dogg

#57. The whole point is, give me a break with the standards. You go to the average jazz label and suggest a record and they want to know which standards you're going to play. I'm saying let's break the formula.

Branford Marsalis

#58. I made that first record in 2008, alongside the EP, but my label at the time waited three years to release it. They thought maybe someone bigger would buy it, but they didn't, so in the end they just released it themselves.

Lana Del Rey

#59. Most girls my age don't appreciate this kind of music. In my opinion, this is real music. It's haunting, poetic, and carefully-crafted. Not that techno teeny bopper crap that only sounds good because of all the machines the record label uses to make it.

Lauren Hammond

#60. When you record for a label, they own that material in perpetuity, meaning that they can release, chose not to release , or repackage it any way they so choose ... with or without the permission of the artist.

Edgar Winter

#61. The opportunity to record the song came when Phil Collins' record label, Atlantic, was doing a tribute album to him and they asked all these different artists to do renditions of his songs.

Deborah Cox

#62. I have a day job Monday to Friday. I work at a record label in Brooklyn called Ba Da Bing. It's a great indie label and I listen to music all day. I meet people online and find out about the cool new music blogs.

Sharon Van Etten

#63. The label doesn't do anything but put your record in the store, that's all they do. And tell you, you don't have a single ... and tell you, it's not gonna sell ... that's what the label does.

Ray Lamontagne

#64. I should be the one to say what I do. It's just not done that way anymore in Nashville, and I can't do it the other way. That's how our record label came about.

Charlie Daniels

#65. I was turned down by every record label in L.A. Perseverance is three quarters of the game. Talent's only a quarter. Being able to withstand the word 'no' over and over can build you a pretty tough skin. I knew if I just kept at it, at the very least I'd get better at my craft.

Sheryl Crow

#66. You can't come out on a record dissing the system and be on a label that's connected to the system.

Ice-T

#67. If I was rich enough, I would love to launch my own record label. I would love to try and give all my musically talented friends a start in the industry.

Cara Delevingne

#68. It's not like I'm taking 20 grand from the shows. I mean there's no record label, so this is a genuine thing. And I think most people can see that. I think that anyone who knows me, knows I do things with integrity.

Mike Peters

#69. My record label always says you shouldn't talk about money because it makes people extremely uncomfortable. Refugees can't talk about money. Rappers can talk about money; refugees can't talk about money.

M.I.A.

#70. I will never sign to a major record label again. If, by some mega fluke, a record of mine looked like it might break big, I'd try and do it via an indie or somehow license it. I'm not having my music owned by those corporate bastards again.

Malcolm Wilson

#71. I didn't have to fit into a mold. You make the mold. People can smell a rat. If you're doing thing for marketing and for a record label, you're going to set yourself up to be called a phony. As long as it's true to you, you do it.

Anthony Evans

#72. However, the radio and national media depend much more on the hype from a good record label, and from a ' buzz ' about a band, then from just one or two good shows. There are a lot of artists that have a ton of good press going for them, and still do not make it big in the US.

Pat Garrett

#73. He had the sex tape, the canceled tour dates and now the record label's sword of Damocles hanging over his head to prove it.

Pepper Winters

#74. When I first started out in the music industry and went to Elektra Records, I didn't go to be an artist, I went to get a record label started. And they said in order to have a label deal, I had to be an artist - so that's what I did.

Missy Elliott

#75. I get bored easily, so I need to do a lot. I've started a record label, so I get to nurture new talent and talk about music, which is a passion of mine. I've written another book. And I get to come to work and do the TV show, which is always really fun.

Ellen DeGeneres

#76. Kaputt was just a record that did really well for us, and therefore our record label and our booking agent said that we should go out and take our message to the world.

Dan Bejar

#77. I have hundreds and hundreds of songs waiting to get on albums, but I don't know about the three-month radio tours and if I'll be interested in that. I haven't figured it out, but I will definitely be doing music, whether it is independent or with a major record label.

Jewel

#78. I think I'm a living embodiment of, 'Don't try to push me around or squash me,' whether its how I talk to a record label or in my relationships.

Bonnie Raitt

#79. I certainly don't want to be a record label guy.

Guy Picciotto

#80. Heath Ledger was supposed to put our album on what would have been a new record label. I still feel a little dead after losing him.

Alex Ebert

#81. Shoot, there's a committee to tell you everything at a record label. You definitely have to know who you are if you want to look like you at the end of the process. We've all seen people get record contracts, and by the time they're spit out by the machine, we don't even recognize them.

Gary Allan

#82. Commercial success still hasn't come to an artist that isn't signed to a record label. There are very few artists that can succeed without the help of a record label. The role of the record label is still required, it's still necessary.

Edgar Bronfman Jr.

#83. I'd done recordings, little demos, since I was in college, which I used to get gigs. But I never thought I'd have a record label.

Norah Jones

#84. I've toured the U.S. every single year and I've put a record out every single year whether it was on a major label or not; that doesn't make any difference to me.

Buzz Osborne

#85. I don't think the label cares about an album ... People just want their number-one record.

Peter Tosh

#86. I would like to say when I turn the project over to the label that I have been successful. And that's truly the way I feel. But, in addition to the self-pride in 'making' a good album, to be honest, I'd love to have a hit record.

Chely Wright

#87. Putting out the things that I like best hasn't been the easiest way to run a label, and it still isn't because it requires finding an audience for each record.

Greg Ginn

#88. I just have so much love for my record label.

Katy Perry

#89. I started my own record label.

Tom Felton

#90. There is such a thing as good interference from your record label. I don't think I get enough interference from my record label.

Elton John

#91. My allegiance was always to the act. I wanted them to be happy. I wasn't owned by a magazine or a record label. And I was a very naughty boy to boot!

Mick Rock

#92. If a record label will sign you in order for you to be moulded into something that can make more money for them, then you should get out of there if you're that artist.

Matt Corby

#93. Generally, when a record label suggests album ideas for you, you smile politely, and then proceed to shoot it down, because it's never what you as an artist feel is right for you.

John Scofield

#94. If you are the record label who owns Lady Gaga, and you have a new artist coming up, you can say, 'Let's have the artist play just before Gaga.' Now you've exposed the huge Gaga audience to the new artist. It's similar to showing a trailer before a movie. The hit creates a hit.

Anita Elberse

#95. On everything I do I'm always taking someone's money, whether it's a movie studio or a record label. Somebody's paying for it, and I'm always respectful of that. But I'm never going to compromise.

Spike Jonze

#96. I used to enjoy all the white bands when I was a kid listening to the radio. But the record companies, they take music and label it - like, they say "rock". Because the white singers can't sound like James Brown, they call him "soul". They've been doing that for years. That's the prejudice crap.

Miles Davis

#97. And the next album I do is going to be different because I'm going to change. I already did that thing where I had a band - and I had a great time with a band - but it was almost like pandering to get a record label deal.

Laura Bell Bundy

#98. We were not given any statistics as to how many records were pressed on the blue label. I used to ask Bob Shad how we were going to get paid from record sales and what I got for an answer was not to worry about the business end of the deal.

Phil Harris

#99. Technology being the way it is, and record sales being the way it is, there are not too many things that you need to depend on a label for that you can't go out and do yourself.

Joe Budden

#100. I've started a little independent record label called 'Six String Productions' and recorded a couple of tunes, and I hope to do some more with some future artists next year. It's a real passion project of mine.

Tom Felton