Words matter. These are the best Troy Carter Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
I think, as an industry, we should be supportive of a broad subscription model and not do anything to jeopardize the potential health of the music business – because we’re not out of the woods yet.
Being born in the adolescent years of hip hop helped us learn about flux. And when you’re in an industry that is constantly growing, changing, maturing… you get a chance to try different things out and a chance to fail.
Music as a whole industry is growing exponentially, but in terms of the actual music file, when you look at the actual value there, to me, ‘The Beatles’ catalog should be worth more than Spotify.
You can’t make an artist like Lady Gaga. You can help support, you can help develop the vision – I think you can add to the vision – but you just can’t make an artist like that. That’s like saying Lebron James’ high school coach made Lebron James.
The primary plan is to let the music speak for itself.
Lady Gaga is phenomenal. From the first day I met her, she was lightning in a bottle.
I invest in black-led startups not because of a sense of charity. I make those investments because of the basic principle of supply and demand and the reality that black entrepreneurs typically lack the network to have their deals become bid up and overvalued.
What I like about Bre.ad is the simplicity of it. When you can explain it to people, like ‘five-second billboards in front of a link shortener,’ it makes a lot of sense.
When we’re looking at strategic partners, it may be that they’re larger partners or big corporations or start-ups. But, when you look at Gilt and places like Amazon and Starbucks, they’re all places where it’s a lot of foot traffic or digital traffic.
When you look at how technology companies are funded, it’s not a zero-sum game. It could be 20 investors in one company, and everybody has to work together for the benefit of that company.
Hustle is simple – it’s doing the work. A lot of people like to talk about it, a lot of people have ideas, but it’s difficult to actually do the work.
I’d like to open doors for underserved communities and minorities in entrepreneurship.
We look to find partners whose values align with that of our artists. We also look for unique platforms that the potential branding partner can provide. Sometimes that’s distribution, and sometimes it’s an advertising platform. Each situation is unique.
I’m a very commonsense guy – I just look at the viability of the idea, if I feel the team has the ability to execute the idea. I also look at the investment syndicate, the size of the market, and then a lot of gut married on top of it.
I am inspired by the diversity of the entrepreneurs that come into ‘Shark Tank’ and the ability of the show to reach all Americans.
To me, mentorships and internships are two big pillars in business development. I believe in having multiple mentors.
My mom was not able to buy us the expensive Air Jordans, so if I wanted something that was a little bit nicer, my brother and I, we had to go earn money for it.
In the future, an artist will be able to perform for the entire world in one date. For the fan, it will be a fully immersive experience – through a pair of glasses or whatever the device.
It’s more important to have the one million diehard fans than to have 54 million people who aren’t necessarily fans, or they might have liked one thing you said or one video.
When you think about brands and movie studios and everybody who is trying to reach millennials, having a captive audience in the back of Lyft or an Uber is a pretty great place.
I was Jazzy Jeff’s assistant.
There are not a lot of black men in the pop business.
Exclusives are bad for artists, bad for consumers, and bad for the whole industry.
It isn’t that every company is going to be successful. The law of averages shows that 80% of companies are going to fail.
If you wake up in the morning and your favorite artist isn’t on the service that you’re paying ten dollars a month for, sooner or later you lose faith in the subscription model.
I had this little rap group, and we were called ‘2 Too Many’… We used to hang out in front of Jazzy Jeff’s record studio every day.
If you look at a company like Uber, a company that so anti-establishment that cab companies are trying to find ways to shut it down, one could compare that to how Public Enemy and NWA went after then-modern society in hip hop.
If a kid goes and buys a CD at Best Buy, we have no idea who the person is, how many times they listen to it, or anything like that.
What’s important for that person on the other side of the table, and what’s important for the client?
The music industry really is a meritocracy on a creative level.
On the artist side, we made a significant investment in very young artists from the very beginning of their careers and helped them become global superstars.
In order to continue the growth, we have to go back to embracing technology and the way that people choose to consume music.
If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.
The venture capital world is completely stacked against minority entrepreneurs.
With Gaga – she’s not afraid to take chances. You get these dynamic projects because of it. She’s completely unafraid.
Before I even agreed to work with Hennessy and the Privilege Awards, I wanted to do some research on it, look up past winners, and find out more about it.
Now we know that if we make a ten min video for YouTube, people will watch it.
The problem with when you look at eBay is that you can put a pair of Jordans next to a frying pan. It’s an altogether different experience compared to having some editorial around it and well-curated experience.
I didn’t go to business school. I actually didn’t even graduate high school. I ended up with a GED. So everything that I’ve learned in business, I’ve learned through experience.
Fifty-one million likes doesn’t mean we’re going to sell 51m albums or concert tickets.
I invested in Uber in 2011 when it was only in San Francisco.
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.
People don’t buy horses to ride around any more for transportation. I just think the world changes. As a business, we have to make the proper adjustments.
Our bet is on the future of micronetworks.
I grew up carrying crates of records for Will Smith and those guys.
