Top 60 Record Companies Quotes

By the time 1997 had rolled around, I had been in the music business for all my life, from the age of 15. I started recording professionally when I was 18. I had seen how record companies work, how the business works, and truth be told, I was pretty disgusted by everything by that time.

When certain bootleg companies started off and they would take maybe ten per cent of whatever they got and help fuel new bands, which I’m cool with, I think that’s a good idea. Most of the record companies are not doing that.

I’m really happy that I got to work with such fresh talent. In a day when record companies are not particularly good at encouraging young, talented songwriters to come forward and get exposure, I think it’s important to give tomorrow’s songwriters the opportunity.

Now record companies are run by lawyers and accountants. The shift from the one to the other was definitely related to when the takes started to get big.

This constant pressure from record companies to come up with a hit single or something like that, I find completely tiresome.

Records used to be documents, but now record companies want product.

There are no record companies in Waikiki.

Finally, I would like to remind record companies that they have a cultural responsibility to give the buying public great music. Milking a trend to death is not contributing to culture and is ultimately not profitable.

I’m a fan of music documentaries and I always love seeing what goes on behind the scenes. In kind of the new era of record companies and record releases and that sort of thing, there has to be way more content for the audience.

I’m not a corporate machine. I’m not Lady Gaga, I’m not Madonna, I don’t have a million dollars behind me and big giant record companies. I am an organic artist.

You used to make records, record companies sold them, and people went to record stores and bought them. That’s all gone now.

I don’t think that old-fashioned idea of record companies exists any more.

Record companies would rather you stay dumb, not even think of it as a business, so they can either rip you off or get you out of the way in five years to make way for the new groups.

The record company started as an adjunct to that, to give young composers their first recorded performances; to give young musicians their first debut on a recording. These are all things that big record companies would never touch because there is no money in it!

I put ‘Ghost’ online hoping to make a couple hundred bucks, but then the next day, I took meetings with five different record companies.

It seemed record companies wanted bands to be creative because they didn’t know how to manufacture underground music. We could do our own thing and go at our own pace. But that changed when major labels started wanting bands that would sell 7 million records.

The only thing I have no control over is the politics that goes on within the record company. It’s always been the same, but it’s far tougher now, because record companies are run by financial people; before, they were run by creative people.

We were a very popular live band in London, packing in 6,000 people a night, and the record companies that came after us wanted us to be the flavor of the month.

I don’t relate to what’s left of the music business. There doesn’t seem to be any point to it anymore. The business that I grew up in and loved, we made records a different way – there were record companies, there were stores where you could buy albums.

I grew up in an era where the record companies just sold records to everybody, and the whole family bought songs.

There’s no more record companies, so I have to get on the Internet and let people know the album is out there. I don’t know if we’re working for it, or if it’s working for us.

The record companies are interested in the kind of sales they can get from the rock groups.

I think the good thing about the Internet is to give something away and to sell something else. Get a business model like that because the old brick and mortar record stores are falling apart, and the big record companies are collapsing under their own weight.

Everything about my life was culturally rich, and all the people I met sort of reinforced the wackiness that was normally inside of me. No one said, ‘You can’t do that,’ until I got to real record companies, that is.

When Phil and I started out, everyone hated rock n’ roll. The record companies didn’t like it at all – felt it was an unnecessary evil. And the press: interviewers were always older than us, and they let you know they didn’t like your music, they were just doing the interview because it was their job.

A lot of very popular mainstream artists are products of record companies and marketing companies, and any time anyone can stand outside of that, that’s interesting.

Well it’s because the record companies are pumping away with their commercial stuff. I think it’s a shame.

We’ve managed to have a long career that is still quite vibrant, yet we’ve never had to kow-tow to record companies who said we weren’t commercial enough.

From the age of 14 to about 20, I bombarded record companies and DJs with my demos. I was desperate to get it out there. Most of the time, I got nothing back.

The record companies don’t give you a chance, like in the old days when they went, ‘Here’s a pile of money. Go make a good record!’

Sometimes you are at the mercy of record companies or publishing companies.

I’ve been wanting to sing for a long time. I’ve been singing all my life, and I’ve tried different record companies, but it seemed like – it was such a struggle and so hard to get out there. So, I said, ‘I’m gonna go on American Idol and see how far it takes me.’

It’s always very special for me to work Chicago. Both of the record companies I was with, early on, were based in Chicago. The music was always huge there.

I don’t hear record companies coming up with any good ideas or suggestions. Historically, if it ain’t their idea, it ain’t no good, so you got that to contend with.

It’s all false pressure; you put the heat on yourself, you get it from the networks and record companies and movie studios. You put more pressure on yourself to make everything that much harder.

If you have good songs and a real desire to make music, the next thing to do, instead of approach record companies, is to get yourself a really good manager because then it allows you to focus on your profession of being a musician. Then they can focus on the darker art of the record label and the music industry.

Record companies are not unique. Artists are. Period!

When it all started, record companies – and there were many of them, and this was a good thing – were run by people who loved records, people like Ahmet Ertegun, who ran Atlantic Records, who were record collectors. They got in it because they loved music.

The people who run record companies now wouldn’t know a song if it flew up their nose and died. They haven’t a clue, and they don’t care. You tell them that, and they go, Yeah? So, your point is?

There are good people in radio and the record companies, but there are others who are completely in the wrong job and holding music up in the process.

You’re starting to see new record companies and business models taking shape, but it takes time.

I grew up in an era where the record companies just sold records to everybody, and the whole family bought songs. Today, record companies are failing because they are putting their accent just on the young, and I think that’s rather silly.

Record companies, they’re just like lemmings.

You could have a zillion Facebook followers. Those people don’t buy records. It’s about a hundred to one…Record companies, they don’t have any money, so they see social media as the free marketing… So… ‘Billy, light yourself on fire and stand upside down, and that’ll market the record.’

It’s typical of record companies. They sign you because you’re unique, and then they want to put you in a mold so they can sell records.

Mostly I’ve never let record companies become involved with my music, which was a very smart thing that my first manager Dave Robinson did, to keep them out of it.

Record companies are not necessarily interested in you realizing your artistic dream. The bottom line is that they got to sell records.

First of all, you needed a budget to do the video. The record companies would pick and choose who got videos.

I understand quarterly billing, how the record companies run.

Between the record companies being the way they are and the fact that people can just download one song instead of buying a whole album, it’s hard to make a good living nowadays.

Actually, I have another record I made with them in 1976, but I’ve had such a bad experience with record companies, because I keep my head so much in music and not in business.

Record companies feel they are the culture. Hip-hop has to begin to define, protect, and promote itself, and that’s why we founded the Temple.

When it all started, record companies – and there were many of them, and this was a good thing – were run by people who loved records, people like Ahmet Ertegun, who ran Atlantic Records, who were record collectors. They got in it because they loved music… Now, record companies are run by lawyers and accountants.