Top 165 Music Business Quotes

A lot of time, if you spend too much time in Nashville, songwriters get caught up in charts and numbers and the music business politics.

Technology has opened up the music business 100-fold and provided space for all kinds of new faces.

Lots of people, from what I can see, just want to get into the music business for the glamour of it. But there isn’t any, really. It’s so up and down this industry, but if you really love it, nothing can stop you.

I don’t think the music business is a very good business to be in.

It’s a small percentile of people who see one dime out of the music business.

I was tossed all over the place growing up, which I guess prepared me for the music business, but the one thing that has always been there, that has never ever left me, has been country music.

That’s why I do this music business thing, it’s communication with people without having the extreme inconvenience of actually phoning anybody up.

I think there are so, so, so, so many things you have to be… to do this… you know, to keep going in the music business. Of course, you have to play well with others, you know, and you have to be smart with business and be good at your craft and be healthy.

The truth is that the music business is mean and honest and brutal.

I feel like there is a lot of homophobia and misogyny in the music business, and I feel like I’ve gotten to a place where I’ve broken down a lot of those doors.

The nature of the music business is such that it’s better to have a few chances for some things to be successful than just one, and that’s kind of been my attitude all along.

I always knew, that in some way, I’d be connected to, and involved in, the music business.

My number one goal is to take over the music business and run a really great record company.

I don’t live in as much fear as I used to. I’m not afraid of the music business. Life is too damn short. I know what’s important, and the tasks are very clear.

I’ve been around the music business for a long time now, and I’ve had a lot of chances to do movies. But I didn’t really want to do any until I found stuff that started to hit me in the right place.

When you’re in the music business, everything is very personal, because you are invested in everything; there’s a very deep, personal attachment to your music.

I’m not oriented by money, to be honest. Everybody thinks we’re in the music business for money all of the time. But that’s not true for me.

If you had ever heard my album you would know that I could never consider the music business!

I decided I couldn’t ever again deal with the megabusiness end of the music business.

The consolidation of the music business has made it difficult to encourage styles like the blues, all of which deserve to be celebrated as part of our most treasured national resources.

I was too trusting when I was younger, especially of certain people in the music business.

There are a lot of things that are part of the music business that I’m very bad at. Organization, being on time – the stuff you need in order to function in the regular world.

I think the music business is as crass and as unrewarding as it has ever been.

I think that’s where the music business is where it is today because at one point, we were just splurging so much money and it was just extra. Everything was just extra and over did. Now, people are being as creative as they were but they’re not spending $500,000 or a million on a video.

The desire to hit a big home run is dominating the music business.

I know how hard it is to make it in the music business.

I think probably my main advice to new artists is if you want to be in the music business, you need to be dang serious about it because it’s a rough business.

People in the music business say don’t make too many records because they’ll compete against one another.

I always kept busy. If the music business got bad I’d get me a job doin’ somethin’ else. Bellhop. Porter. Anything to make an honest living.

I think the music business is probably not happy with what we’ve done, because the people buying the record have actually got to pick what they want to buy, rather than being told what they should buy.

Nashville was totally different than I ever dreamed. I had only seen the music business on television and been to a couple of concerts. I had no clue.

Being in the music business is a totally different industry right there.

I like thinking of myself as invisible. I find it a very advantageous way to live. Unfortunately, its not the way the music business works. If you don’t create some kind of public image, it gets created for you.

Obviously, as the music business has suffered tremendously, with being able to illegally download everything, it’s also become amazingly easy to find new bands, because everyone can put their stuff online. Even if you can’t find a record label, you can find these awesome bands, all over the world.

When I was 17-years-old, I was in the music business.

We are at a crossroads in the music business: with the rise of the internet, the world we live in has changed, and the past is not coming back. But I see the glass as half-full: the internet and social networking are new avenues for the next Bob Dylan to be born on.

Nowadays, with the state of the music business, for any artist, whether you’re up-and-coming or you’ve been in it for awhile, you have to explore different revenues and different ways of expressing yourself.

There just is exponentially more money in the movie business than in the music business. As a result there are more people involved in the creative process.

I’ve always felt like the Forrest Gump of the music business. I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of great people.

The bricks and mortar of the music business, they don’t exist any longer.

The music business is motivated by money. Music is motivated by energy and feelings.

I suppose we don’t know that much about how the music business operates in the U.K., but from what I’ve heard, it’s a pretty big deal.

The Philadelphia/New York world of the music business is a tough place to be.

I’m glad about what’s happening to the music business. This last crop of people we had in the 90s, who are going away now, they didn’t like music. They didn’t trust musicians. They wanted something else from it.

I heard someone from the music business saying they are no longer looking for talent, they want people with a certain look and a willingness to cooperate.

I worked hard all my life as far as this music business. I dreamed of the day when I could go to New York and feel comfortable and they could come out here and be comfortable.

I didn’t come into the music business to make money. I came into it to be a success. Of course, if you’re successful, you’ll earn money and I was happy to receive it.

I think there is a big difference between the music business and music. And my relationship is to music, not music business. I think the business will keep changing, but music won’t. Music will be there.

The whole format of entertainment that I did seems to be fading away. The music business of today is completely different when you see the videos and the music.

I’m not sure a lot of us in the music business or in rock ‘n’ roll are given credit for irony or humor.

What happens in the music business is that if you step out of your little spot to do something else, the sand falls right into where you stood and you’re gone, you’re history.

I’ve always treated the music business as a business.

I’m not really interested in participating in mainstream culture. Participating in the mainstream music business is, to me, like getting involved in a racket. There’s no way you can get involved in a racket and not someway be filthied by it.

Unfortunately, music devolved instead of evolved. The music business got into the hands of lawyers and accountants rather than the entrepreneurial creative people, and that’s when the beginning of the end started. It’s all based on money instead of art and creativity.

The music business and I were made for each other.

Commitments are one of the worst things to have in the music business. They’re very annoying.

Coming from the music business and seeing the transition from artists to fans, fans to consumers, it’s really about understanding the psychology of why people want to associate with your brand.

Independent artists and labels have always been the trend setters in music and the music business.

The music business is very hard on women over 22. You really have to prove yourself every time you make a record. Are you as vibrant as you used to be? Are you as sexy? So I really want to prove that a woman in her 30s can be all those things and more.

Kitty Wells was the first and only Queen of Country Music, no matter what they call the rest of us. She was a great inspiration to me as well as every other female singer in the country music business. In addition to being a wonderful asset to country music, she was a wonderful woman.

I’ve done well, I’ve been disappointed, and I think it all goes back to you. Of course the labels are going to be the labels. It’s the music business. You are a business. That’s what they do. So you’ve got to protect yourself.