Top 175 Music Industry Quotes

At the same time all this was happening, there was a folk song revival movement goingon, so the commercial music industry was actually changed by the Civil Rights Movement.

I came to realize that if I was going to succeed in the music industry, I was going to have to learn how to perform my songs myself.

I feel that in the music industry there are so many artists it’s easy to be forgotten because it’s so cluttered.

I used to read music books when I was 13. My mom was working at a library. She’s a librarian. I would get my mom to check out any kind of books that had anything to do with the music industry. I read a lot about royalities, publishing, marketing, stuff like that.

When you’re faced with challenges in any industry, but especially the music industry, it tests you in a lot of ways, both personally and professionally.

My experience in the music industry made me very thick-skinned. Your art is something very personal and there’s never a shortage of critics when it comes to art.

The music industry is dominated by guys. I work with men 98 percent of the time – producers, arrangers, musicians, engineers.

The music industry isn’t converging toward dance music. Dance music is dance music. It’s been around since disco – and way before disco. But there’s different versions of dance music.

You have to be really strong in the music industry, and I’m naturally very timid. That was really hard for me. You have to be tough. You have to make decisions and be a businesswoman.

The ‘music industry’ is not a term I use. I tend to concentrate on music, and the music business is something different.

The music industry has become so unpredictable. And I think people know that if someone has a Number One song, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll have several ones after.

I don’t even know what words to use to talk about the music industry anymore. But the business has changed a lot – the methods of releasing music.

Stop trying to treat music like it’s a tennis shoe, something to be branded. If the music industry wants to save money, they should take a look at some of their six-figure executive expense accounts. All those lawsuits can’t be cheap, either.

I know the music industry is based on a lot of smoke and mirrors in a lot of cases, such as making things look like one thing versus what it actually is. I feel like I’ve been here long enough that I’ve surpassed the need for any of that.

There are not many girls doing reggaeton or urban music in the Latin music industry.

Don’t let this music industry or any industry come between friendship. Just stay focused on your goals.

It’s funny how the music industry is enraged about the Internet and the way things are copied without being paid for. But you know why people steal the music? Because they can’t afford the music.

Everybody always thinks you have to move out of the city and go where the music industry is, but it’s possible in Louisville, and it’s possible anywhere. You just have to believe.

I think too much of the music industry is for the lawyer and accountant mentality.

A lot of beefs in the music industry are caused from miscommunication and just not really understanding what’s going on, having people in your ear saying this is what somebody did, or this is what somebody did to you.

For the first ten years of my career, I felt suffocated. People constantly stood over me while I tried to create. And in 2009, I hit rock bottom. I couldn’t find myself because I was looking to be defined by the music industry or by being number one on the Billboard charts.

I think the States is a huge part of the music industry worldwide. There are so many other artists and music industry people here, so I think to be working my audience here is definitely a go.

I’m an advocate for women to become more aware of the different positions in the music industry.

I would love to be able to say that due to my experience in the music industry, when it comes to the songs, I’m killing it over anybody else, but that is not the case. Everybody in this thing is ridiculously talented to where I don’t feel special.

We grew up in the middle of nowhere. We didn’t have a rich uncle in the music industry or some contact through someone that our dad worked with. And we went into the world blindly, and just through believing, dreaming, and working hard, Good Charlotte came to fruition.

My biggest frustration is the lack of scale in the music industry. The fact that no one has sold 100 million copies of an album is frustrating.

You see so many musicians come and go. For me, it’s really about the longevity in the music industry. It’s not all about having a lot of hit records at one time.

My family, particularly my brother, made it possible for me to get into the Punjabi music industry.

When I started getting so many haters and closed doors, I decided to prove that it could be done. I was a divorced single mother of three at the time and a size 12 – not your typical model artist that labels feel work for the music industry.

When I entered the music industry, the biggest struggle was reaching out to people.

There have never been so many women in the music industry, but they’re doing ballads and pop. Where’s the new Joan Jetts and the Wanda Jacksons and the Debbie Harrys, all these strong women? I wanna be the woman that rocks.

Starting in the mid-1990s, the end-to-end ubiquity of the Internet, combined with its cheapness, spontaneously combusted to give us Napster – a site that revolutionized the music industry overnight. We got P2P file swapping in the film and TV industry as well.

Even if there were no illegal copying, the advent of digital distribution will put a lot of stress on the movie and music industry. When the distribution costs comes down, that puts more price pressure on the rest of the cost.

‘Vinyl’ is a good look at the music industry. The script was honest.

I think overall, and this isn’t specific to Spotify or any streaming service or any label… when you consider the overall value chain of the music industry and how important the songwriter is to the business – I think there needs to be another look at the value chain.

The music industry is in such poor shape; it’s in a really bad way, and a lot of people in the industry are very depressed.

My husband works in the music industry and he’s always the first to know about great new bands, so I end up seeming really with it because I’ll be listening to an up-and-coming band before everyone else hears about it.

I am immensely overwhelmed and thankful to Filmfare and the Times Of India Group for bestowing on my father and my guru the honor he truly deserves. It is prodigious to see the Best Music Album Award being named in memory of the man who pioneered and changed the face of music industry in India.

And I just pray that god gives me longevity in the music industry.

I definitely like making my friends in the music industry.

I think that the music industry is such an interesting place, and there are so many situations that people don’t know about.

All of them had so much to offer us as far as, you know, knowledge in the music industry, and especially Randy and Paula because, you know, they’ve been artists.

My parents are so supportive of whatever we want to do and completely nurtured that, and they’re so proud of that as well. My sister’s a doctor, and I have an older brother as well. He went into the music industry; he’s very musically talented.

There’s something missing in the music industry today… and it’s music. Songs you hear don’t last, it’s just product fed to you by the industry.

More than anybody in the music industry, the Staple Singers were like family to me.

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.

Having had polio never held me back as I got older. Although having one leg smaller than the other isn’t much fun, I could always get about without any trouble. Luckily, in the music industry, everyone was only interested in my singing and playing and not the size of my legs.

If you don’t have any ties to the music industry, you just love ‘American Idol,’ you can sit there and do exactly what you do in your living room, which is stare at them and judge them.

I think what’s surprised me about the music industry is that you never know what’s going to happen. I’ve had to teach myself that, because I love to know everything. I’m quite a control freak when it comes to stuff like that.

Simon Cowell is the George Bush of the music industry.

The music industry used to be able to control a single dance on the very smallest level of when people are supposed to hear it, and when they’re supposed to start liking it, and when they’re supposed to start buying it. And that’s trashed, you know, that big machine that takes control and works albums for a long period.

The music industry is so easy compared to the ballet world.

I am so excited for where and what K-pop is doing and how it’s growing. In the music industry it’s not a trend, it’s not a quick ‘oh this is cool for a minute,’ this is a full genre, which is exciting and cool.

The games industry is already bigger than the music industry, and it’s mainly directed at teenage boys.

Well, more than me saying to the rest of the country music industry there is not enough traditional country music – that is not necessarily the statement in truth. I think more so that I, me, missed it more than anything else.

I don’t think piracy is going to kill the music industry. But digital technology and the ability to download will change the packaging from CDs to a single-based business.

I’ve been an educator all my life pretty much. It’s important as a manager and also as a record label, to educate your artists on public speaking, how to build that connection, how to communicate effectively, to have a general working knowledge of the music industry.

I have four older siblings and one younger, and all three of my brothers are in the music industry. My dad was really involved in music, too, with the disco, and he also started Radio Caroline and was the one who invented pirate radio, if you like, off on a coast in England on a boat.

I think this industry can be tough on everyone. You have to surround yourself with supportive people and know when to put your foot down and do what’s best for you and your family. The first few years in the music industry can be a steep learning curve, and I’ve definitely developed a thicker skin!

It’s funny how the music industry is enraged about the Internet and the way things are copied without being paid for. But you know why people steal the music? Because they can’t afford the music.

When I got into the music industry, I wasn’t focused on being the most famous artist or even getting a major record deal. It was just to make music on my own terms or create my own image, do my own hair, do my own makeup.

‘The X Factor’ is great entertainment, but it doesn’t prepare people for getting chewed up and spat out by the music industry.

In the past I’ve had a very small independent label help me do an album and I’m so grateful for that, but as anybody knows in the music industry, that is down there.

When you look at what people consider success in the music industry, it’s just terrible music.

I’ve been through the music industry and with the Internet the music industry is not what it used to be.

I had to leave the music industry behind for a minute to figure out what made me feel home again.

I think Paul McGuinness and U2 created the Irish music industry. It certainly wasn’t there before that.

I don’t think we see ourselves as the savior of the music industry.

We have seen the damage already caused to the music industry and we have to continue to make the public and government bodies globally aware of the damage that will happen if DVD piracy is not brought under control.

I didn’t understand how to make it in the music industry, I just wanted to make music.

To me, the music industry doesn’t exist, it’s like the devil, it doesn’t exist if you don’t believe in it.

I’m not saying you can’t be successful in the music industry without Spotify. But when I look at the future of music, I don’t think scarcity is the model anymore. We have to embrace ubiquity – that music is everywhere.

Singing rock n’ roll – they called it singing for the devil. But we all wanted an opportunity to compete in the music industry, and that was the opportunity.

England’s a small nation, and the pop music industry is built on fashion.

If I hadn’t had that decade in the music industry and, perhaps more importantly, time to reach the point of being sick and disgusted with it, I wouldn’t have written ‘Kill Your Friends.’ That book gave me my whole career.

I play the harmonium. I had learned to use the guitar for a bit before becoming a part of the music industry, but unfortunately didn’t pursue it fully. I would love to learn to play the piano because it holds a unique connect for me in terms of rhythm.

No matter where I’m at in life, whether I’m in the music industry, rich, poor, everybody need love in their life. Gangsta or not, everybody need love in their life. You can’t act too hard about that.

Sometimes it’s isolating, but just being in the music industry that is just dominated by men, I think it means I have to be comfortable and confident in myself and not really care that people think I’m bossy and opinionated and also try and balance that energy.

Dre was one of my heros in the music industry. If he’s not down for his homeboys, I don’t wanna be a part of him or around him.

The music industry is not set up well at all, environmentally. But I sing about what I feel, and I’m very inspired by activists and friends that I get to connect with.

I think as far as the music industry is concerned, it’s kind of been the wild, wild West in a way with the Internet, which is not necessarily a bad thing to me.

I’ve been through the entire gamut of the music industry – I’ve been playing in clubs since I was 14, and I’ve been on Warner Bros, on Sony – I’ve had lots of successes and some serious times of struggle.

Obviously I’m very proud to be Canadian because there’s a lot of crazy cool artists that come out of Canada. It’s always been my home ground, even if I’m traveling around the world dancing or singing or in L.A. all the time. But Alberta doesn’t really have a music industry.

At the end of the day, I want the music industry to be larger than what it is today.

When you grow up in the music industry, trying to be Britney Spears because that’s what sells records and then you realize, ‘All I have to do is be myself? I should have thought of that a long time ago,’ it feels good to have success come from what’s actually inside of you.

Good new songs are the backbone of the music industry. There isn’t an artist out there who could survive without hit songs.

The hardest part about the music industry for anyone is getting into the ears of the world.

I don’t think holograms are the future in the music industry.

The movie industry can be tricky and occasionally creepy, and I have this sense that the music industry is just shady as hell. I don’t want to be a part of it.

I’ve been through a lot in the music industry, in life. I’ve learned that I have to be tough in this world.

A lot of white men in the music industry are promoting and participating in black culture in a way that is pretty careless. They want the currency of blackness, but they don’t want the brunt that comes along with that.

The music industry is transforming fairly rapidly.

The music industry is changing. You only hear a sprinkling of big names, but there are a lot of really wonderful young musicians with great voices and lyrical content who have refined their sound. They’re up in here, so don’t think they’re not. There’s this wealth of talent below the surface that’s ready to explode.

The thing that scares me about the way the music industry has changed so much is that I’m afraid that the record, the album, will disappear, and it’ll go back to the way it was in the ’50s where everything is single-based.

I’m always gonna be a part of the industry. I may just not be a part of the music industry as Scarface.

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.

My family didn’t push me into the music industry; they just wanted me to do something I loved.

I was on ‘X Factor’ the day after the Brexit vote. People voted for Brexit. But the public also voted for me, they wanted me to be there and part of the music industry. I haven’t felt any bad effects.

I’m proud of my roots. There are not many Asians in the music industry so it’s important for me to tell people where I’m from.

There’s prejudice everywhere. I don’t think the music industry is as bad as the movie industry. But I have taken a few hits over the years for my sexuality, and for being honest about my life. In the end, it’s the music that rules the roost.

I know Becky G, Natti Natasha, and other Latina singers, we have been working many, many years and now we have the opportunity to show what we have, to show what we have been doing for many years. Great things are happening for women in the Latin music industry.

By now all rock bands are wise enough to be suspicious of music industry scum.

I didn’t have any knowledge of the music industry when I first got to L.A., and I really didn’t know on a creative level what I wanted to sound like, so I had to do a lot of experimenting. It led to a spiral of depression and being broke.

We are passionate about making it so that users enjoy the music that they want to enjoy but at the same time fairly compensates artists. That’s not the same as saving the music industry.

Thank you so much for supporting me from the day I stepped foot into the music industry. It really means something to me to have Maya Angelou speak on my behalf. It also means a lot to have Oprah on my speed dial!

Everyone in the music industry is so fun and laid-back.

I just kind of transitioned right out of the dance world into the music industry. I started writing and I just fell in love with the whole process.

Anytime I shoot a video, I just think of anything I can do to set myself apart from everybody in the music industry.

Even if the music industry simply gave away all their music people would complain that they don’t have the bandwidth to download all the stuff – the problem would merely shift from availability to distribution.

When you think of Napster, you think of music. But the first thing that struck me was that this was an important case not only for the music industry but for the whole Internet.

Ask me my influences, I always talk about Bjork and Beck because they’re independent voices in the music industry.

I’ve worked with many powerful men in the music industry.

But anyone who knows anything about the music industry knows it’s not only about the music.

I think it’s important to find out who all the writers were and make sure everyone gets a fair cut – but the music industry hasn’t really got payment of people right at all, to be honest.

I’m now 23 and feel like it’s been a full ‘crash course’ in the music industry – I’ve only just found my sound.

The facts show that the music industry was much better off before Spotify hit these shores.

There’s entrenched homophobia behind the scenes at all levels of the music industry.

That’s just the music industry. They always want you to write something like the one that was popular.

I just am really bad at making new friends – especially in the music industry, because they’re not really real friends; they’re just music industry friends.

When I was first starting out in the music industry, I was always coupled in the same sentence with Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera – and I was probably the worst of them. I think a lot of people back then thought, ‘Mandy Moore… she’ll probably go back to where she came from in a year.’

Nice guys just don’t finish first in the music industry.

The music industry over there seems to treat America like it’s one territory even though they got offices in different parts of America – they’re still quite sort of ‘America is the territory.’

‘The X Factor’ was the final push I needed to have the presence and confidence on stage, which I didn’t have before. It’s a crash course in the music industry. If you can survive the show, you’re ready for the industry.

There are so many times that, as a woman in the music industry, you’re asked questions no male musician would ever be asked.

In the music industry, you can’t create success without having to engage a white man. It’s just not possible. Whether it’s executives, A&Rs, and the people that hold the key to your paper, inevitably, you’ll be met with whiteness.

All music industry places are the same, really. They have the same dynamics and the same concerns and the same needs.

I used to DJ in Atlanta, and that’s how I kind of got into the music industry.

The music industry is something that I’m still trying to understand. With acting, I’ve been doing it for so long that I understand every aspect of it for the most part – there are obviously still more aspects that I need to learn – but I have a grasp on it. With music, I’m still learning. I’m still getting used to it.

In the music industry, intelligence in women is undervalued.

Before I’d even started doing music or having opportunities with my own music, I was studying production and business and stuff anyway. I knew there were so many jobs within the music industry – songwriting or session playing or working at a label – and I was really interested in how it all works.

We all know there are some major problems in the music industry. Every new act signs a bad deal.

I am empowered by my friends in the music industry who are other fellow black men because I see them as my brothers; we have similar experiences and relate to each other.

I think there is less of inspiration and more of perspiration in the music industry.

Amazingly, I’ve been sort of an anomaly in the music industry. I feel like I’ve been able to exist as kind of a throwback artist.

I’m still dancing – my mum owns a dance company – but I felt like there was more freedom in the music industry. You can take your vision and really bring it to life no matter what, because it’s just you.

The music industry is really difficult.

I love music, so if I wasn’t singing, I would probably still be working in the music industry. I love songwriting, so I’d probably be a songwriter.

I hope that the movie industry will learn from the experiences of the music industry and will be much more constructive in their approach to P2P.

Just as like the music industry still wishes for the days when it controlled its own production and distribution, the media and marketing world still yearns for the silver bullet of the thirty-second spot on ‘Seinfeld,’ even as it knows those days are over.

I think people can just make things now. It’s kind of what happened with the music industry. Before, a band couldn’t afford to go into a nice studio, or if they were going to go into a nice studio, they had to record twenty-five songs in two days. That’s not a healthy workflow for anyone.

‘Birds of a Feather’ is on Netflix, and it did big for me. For me, it was a trial and error thing. I never thought about being an actor. I just felt like, in the music industry now, anything you said can go. So now it’s a part of what I do. I make movies now.

Jupiter, Pluto, pick a planet: we can go there. I just got a bit more work to do in the music industry, and we’re going to space, baby.

I came back to the Mumbai music industry after 10 years.

The Internet was a saving grace for promoting and exposing, and even creating. It’s a parallel world to the music industry that already exists, and I’m glad to be a part of it.

I always wanted to be a musician from when I was kid. It was always a massive dream of mine. School was also really really important to me and having an education was top of my priority. So I really wanted to have a degree before I tried anything in the music industry.

To be honest, I’ve found so many more friends in the music industry than people I disagree with. I certainly haven’t been made to feel like an outsider.

If Apple’s a technology company in the music industry, why can’t somebody in the music industry make technology?

The experiences that I’ve had in the music industry have given me a learning curve.

Music industry is like fashion. Things keep coming, things keep going, trends keep changing.

Music TV in the U.K. is disappearing. ‘Top Of The Pops,’ ‘CD:UK’ and shows like that have gone, and it’s bringing down the music industry. We should do as much as we can to keep our music TV and producers need to be more willing to accommodate live music.

I’ll be honest, watching the music industry collapse has been demoralizing and disheartening at times.

I know the music industry is based on a lot of smoke and mirrors in a lot of cases, such as making things look like one thing versus what it actually is. I feel like I’ve been here long enough that I’ve surpassed the need for any of that.

I feel we have a music industry within the film industry.

I think that when you’re making your way up in the music industry, you have all these heroes and the reasons why they are your heroes. As soon as you get into the industry, your guidelines change a little bit. For me, my heroes now are great people first and great artists second.

People like Pedro Infante, Jorge Negrete, Antonio Aguilar, Pedro Fernandez, Vicente Fernandez – these are probably all names that many people don’t know, but they are very popular in the music industry. They were people that I grew up listening to and aspiring to be like one day.

One thing the music industry has taught me is to manage my expectations.

The music industry is so cool because it’s constantly changing.

I decided right away that whomever was going to advise me had to be fundamentally interested in music. This protected me from the skullduggery common to the music industry then and that still exists today. Of course, using this method meant that some things we didn’t know and just had to learn how to do it together.

If Apple’s a technology company in the music industry, why can’t somebody in the music industry make technology?

Andy Grammer is probably the closest friend I have in the music industry, so touring with him was just incredible. He’s such a soulful, kind guy, and he gives great advice. And he also scares me a lot. He does a lot of pranks.

My biggest failure was trying to start and run a music label. The music industry was dying, and I wasn’t ready to help other people the way that they needed to be helped. I was trying to, and I was stifling myself with it.

It’s interesting that the book publishing industry, on the iPad, has much more flexibility than the music industry had.

The music industry doesn’t exist the way it used to. You’ll never have another star like the stars of the ’90s.

I’m in a crazy business. The music industry is really tough, and I fight for my life. I just want to make everybody happy.

The music industry is really funny, when you have a hit record, everyone knows who are you, everyone wants to do duets with you, then if you have a miss, people suffer from amnesia.

With Milli Vanilli, we felt more like bimbos, the bimbos of the music industry, and we didn’t want to be the bimbos anymore.

How I can be an active voice for gay people but also the music industry? This is the art we need right now. This is what we need right now. We’re in a renaissance, and we need people to rebel, come forth, and bring messages into art.

One of the most harmful things in the music industry is ‘record-by-committee,’ where 10 people from the label gather around, and they make you write a 100 songs and decide which one’s a hit. That takes the inspiration out of it.

I’ve always been interested in gaming, growing up as a kid. I played games all my life. So once I got into the music industry and I was successful with my music, I always wanted to get into the gaming world.

I didn’t expect to have music as my main thing. I always thought I was going to be a lawyer. When I graduated, I was doing really well with my music in Malaysia. I had stable income, and I had really good momentum in the music industry, so I had to make a decision whether to stop that and continue being a lawyer.

One of the most harmful things in the music industry is ‘record-by-committee,’ where 10 people from the label gather around, and they make you write a 100 songs and decide which one’s a hit. That takes the inspiration out of it.

I’ve grown so much in the music industry. From ‘GoldenHeart,’ it was just about me and the music and me in this dream. With ‘BlackHeart,’ its more about me and who I am and what role I play in my own life and in the business.

Coming into the music industry, even when I was a kid, one thing I learned is timing is everything. You being prepared is everything.

I did something that’s a no-no in the music industry. I cut my hair. For years, my hair was my stamp. ‘Oh, that’s the long-haired guy from the Black Eyed Peas.’ But when I did it, it was like a breath of fresh air.

The music industry wants safe rock stars, people who are totally homogenised.