150+ Record Label Quotes To Inspire You To Success

Record Label Quotes

A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it.

Below is a collection of Inspirational, Joyful, and encouraging record label quotes or music label quotes, record label sayings, and record label captions and proverbs.

If you love these Record label Quotes, you will love these posts on How to become a sound Engineer, How to write Music Lyrics, How To become a music producer, and Inspirational Music Quotes,

These Record label Quotes Will Inspire You to Start Your Own Record Label.

Inspirational Record Label Quotes

1. “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
2. I did my first album with my own record label. – Guru Randhawa
3. “I bring in the record label who distributes the music. “- Troy Carter
4. “Singing is my favorite thing to do. One day, I hope to get signed to a record label.” – Selah Louise Marley
5. 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
6. I have no friends here apart from the dudes at my record label, and I didn’t go to school with no one. Nobody knows me – I’m incognito. It’s all new, all fun. MF Doom I got to build a career on signing with a record label that viewed me as a partner and not as an artist who didn’t know who she was. – Carly Pearce
7. I run a whole record label, I’m a whole entrepreneur. – Boosie
8. I got out of the business because I went from being the biggest artist on my record label to someone they didn’t even want to have around. – Billy Squier
9. I’ve been trying to do this music stuff and work it out for so long… I was like, ‘Let’s do it for ourselves.’ All these songs, we’ve travelled the world – no record label, nothing. We just did this for us, but the love is very appreciated. Skepta
10. Back in the day, if someone at the record label didn’t care or like your music, it never got to the public. It just got shelved. – Jennifer Holliday
11. I started my own record label. Tom Felton All of my songwriting success happened within a four-month time span, and my record label deal happened within the next three months. – Bibi Bourelly
12. I’ve never conformed to what my record label has said and, yes, that has meant that it’s been a long journey for me. – Charli XCX
13. When you find fame, or you get signed to a record label, it’s not what you imagined – because you imagined they would have 100 percent trust or faith in you as an artist. Unfortunately, that’s not really the case – it’s what sells. – James Arthur
14. My father was the first entrepreneur in the family. He started his own record label, his own restaurant. He knew that, in order to give something back to the people, he had to create. – Rohan Marley
15. “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
16. John Peel made his reputation with his radio show and his record label, Dandelion, by championing the underdog. – Jimmy Page
17. “A lot of people ask me, ‘How did you have the courage to walk up to record labels when you were 12 or 13 and jump right into the music industry?’ It’s because I knew I could never feel the kind of rejection that I felt in middle school. Because in the music industry, if they’re gonna say no to you, at least they’re gonna be polite about it.” – Taylor Swift
18. “I’ve made sure that in any situation and with any record label, I’m allowed to write my own music.” – Taylor Swift
19. At my second record label, they told me and other female artists that some of us were going on the chopping block. I was 19… and it was devastating. – Katy Perry
20. 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
21. “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
22. “Even though were not the most punk rock band, the way weve done things is pretty punk rock. Just kinda say it with a big middle finger to the record labels and do it ourselves.” –  Brandon Thomas
23. 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
24. Even though I haven’t released a song since 2010, I have still performed, so I don’t feel I have been completely away from music. I have been away on a mainstream level, of course. But releasing a single this way – on my own independent record label – is more fun. – Alesha Dixon
25. 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
26. When you don’t have a record label and you have been on your own as we have, you can look at all these other ways you can get in touch with other people and get music out there again. – Andy Taylor

Best Record Label Quotes

27. “I know a lot of people who jumped into a record label right away, dropped an album, and then nothing happened for them. Build your fan base first, and follow your gut”. – Kaytranada
28. Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to start a record label. – Kevin Abstract
29. “I started my own record label.” ~ Tom Felton
30. “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
31. 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
32. “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
33. “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
34. “I’m going to keep proving people wrong, whether it’s my record label, other artists.” ~ Donnis
35. 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
36. “I had to learn the hard way. There was a blindness, without any education or will or drive. Everything I started in the beginning from skate shops to record labels to a million and one side hustles that I went in without knowing how I was going to do it, a lot of those ventures just went out of business.” ~ Rob Dyrdek
37. “It is true you can be successful without [college], but this is a hard world, a real world, and you want every advantage you can have. I would suggest to people to do all that you can. When I dropped out of school, I had worked in the music industry and had checks cut in my name from record labels and had a record deal on the table, and when I wasn’t successful and Columbia said, ’We’ll call you,’ I had to go back and work a telemarketing job, go back to the real world, and that’s how life is. Life is hard. Take advantage of your opportunities.” ~ Kanye West
38. “Record labels collude with some of the radio stations, and the radio stations have their playlists, dependent upon what they call the, quote, ‘hits.’ What’s commercially viable gets recycled, endlessly repeated, and as a result of that, the progressive music can’t break-in.” ~ Michael Eric Dyson
39. “Record labels today are much less patient: Artists have a bad record, and they’re gone.” ~ Kenny Chesney
40. “In theory, when you’re working with a record label, you’re just borrowing their money. And that’s basically how the record industry works, right? It’s like, you borrow $100,000 from a record label, so you don’t make any money until you make back that money for them. In theory, they have you held hostage, so you’ve got to do every little stupid thing that they want you to do.” ~ Patrick Carney , Record Label quotes money
41. “Record labels, which used to have complete control, are essentially irrelevant. The process of a band exposing itself to the world is extremely democratic and there are no barriers. Music is no longer a commodity, it’s an environment or atmospheric element. Consumers have much more choice and you see people indulging in the specificity of their tastes dramatically more. They only bother with music they like.” ~ Steve Albini
42. “The head of a record label sets up structures, but he also defines the sound of the label, which is to describe what is desirable, what fits and what is quality for that label and then to create an environment where that sound can thrive.” ~ John Kao
43. “The means of control that record labels had vis-à-vis distribution no longer exist.” ~ Doug Walters
44. “It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that there’s no money in it. By that I mean the way the video business works now, the artist and the record label send out a song to a bunch of different directors and say, ‘What would you do with this?’ Then everyone has to come up with an idea and bid on it. For me, it’s like, ‘Hey, you want me to do it? Then pay me. I’m not auditioning for you.’” ~ John Landis
45. “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
46. “It doesn’t really matter to me what the rest of country is doing. I’m not caught up in trying to make a record that sounds like everybody else. That, to me, is a record label’s absolute biggest downfall.” ~ Joe Nichols
47. “The rise of the Internet has caused the demise of the record labels, and has destroyed the music business of old, but it’s also created new opportunities for young artists.” ~ Judy Collins
48. “It is hard, though, ‘cos record labels love to boss you around. I won’t let them do that anymore.” ~ Evan Dando
49. “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
50. “There’s no “correct path” to becoming a real artist. You might think you’ll gain legitimacy by going to university, getting published, getting signed to a record label. But it’s all bullshit, and it’s all in your head. You’re an artist when you say you are. And you’re a good artist when you make somebody else experience or feel something deep or unexpected.” ~ Amanda Palmer
51. “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
52. “I just have so much love for my record label.” ~ Katy Perry
53. “I don’t get involved in record label politics.” ~ Leona Lewis
54. “We drank quite a lot and Tony Harrington said, “We’re thinking of starting a record label at The Wire; how about you do a solo record?” I said, “Well, how am I going to do that?” I thought about it, and I’d been working on a lot of music in the years before, and I was working as a journalist, full time, really, up until that point; in whatever little spare time I had, I was working on music. So I said yes.” ~ David Toop
55. “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
56. “When I first came to New York I was a dancer, and a French record label offered me a recording contract and I had to go to Paris to do it. So I went there and that’s how I really got into the music business. But I didn’t like what I was doing when I got there, so I left, and I never did a record there.” ~ Madonna Ciccone
57. “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
58. “The history of the Internet is, in part, a series of opportunities missed: the major record labels let Apple take over the digital-music business; Blockbuster refused to buy Netflix for a mere fifty million dollars; Excite turned down the chance to acquire Google for less than a million dollars.” ~ James Surowiecki
59. “I remember auditioning for record labels and having them tell me, ‘Well, the country-radio demographic is the thirty-five-year-old female housewife. Give us a song that relates to the thirty-five-year-old female, and we’ll talk.’” ~ Taylor Swift
60. “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
61. “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
62. “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
63. “I had taken some of my solo music into the record label. They didn’t really care for the direction I was moving in and I found it really disheartening. They wanted a pop hit, which I understand in terms of making money. I get that. But what they were going to ask of me was something I wasn’t prepared to deliver and I felt kind of trapped. I just stopped writing. I just stopped. It was stifling.” ~ Shirley Manson
64. “At my second record label, they told me and other female artists that some of us were going on the chopping block. I was 19… and it was devastating.” ~ Katy Perry
65. “I hate record labels. They think they know everything. I want to hear them try to sing it.” ~ Jessica Simpson
66. “Some record labels want to package you in a certain way and we didn’t want that. Once the record company saw we had some substance and were not a one hit wonder. They got 100% behind us.” ~ Christian Burns
67. “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
68. “My record producer [David Kahne] said the major record labels these days are like dinosaurs sitting around discussing the asteroid. They know it’s going to hit. They don’t know when, they don’t know where it’s coming from. But it’s sort of hit already. With iTunes, and all of that.” ~ Paul McCartney
69. “I left my record label, Polydor, by mutual agreement, but I’m going to carry on with my singing career.” ~ Alex Parks
70. “The majors, they have to control the distribution, the record outlets, the radio and, in some cases, even the venues. And downloading and pirating have also put pressure on the majors.” ~ Roy Ayers
71. “I’m really thankful to have my own record label. I’ve always looked up to people like Madonna when she launched Maverick Records. Even Jay Z and Sean “Puffy” Combs, who’s a mentor and also gave me a shot when I was an independent artist in Atlanta. He came to my show, and he said, “I just want people to know about you.”” ~ Janelle Monae
72. “If you don’t get substantially what you want, be ready to walk. And don’t look back.” ~ Norman Granz
73. “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
74. “Fans decide what pop culture is. We can define ourselves. Music and the presentation of art nowadays is totally in our control, with the Internet specifically. You no longer need record labels. You no longer need movie distribution companies. You can just make it and put it online, and it will distribute itself to millions of people. The borders and everything have been broken down. It really is in the hands of the people.” ~ Laura Jane Grace
75. “Knowing record labels and knowing the kinds of things they would object to-they just object to everything that’s interesting.” ~ Aimee Mann
76. “My record label, which is a huge record label who represents massive, massive stars – they’ve never done anything like this before, and they were so excited about this idea of an animated character which is singing legitimate music. It’s not a comedy record, it’s a legitimate record. And they really jumped on board. So, we’ve got our Facebook page up, we’ll be jumping on Twitter very soon, and sort of be creating Haley outside of American Dad.” ~ Rachael MacFarlane
77. “I’ve always had to deal with being biracial, even in music. When I came on the scene, I’d go to these record labels, and they’d say things like, “Lenny Kravitz. That’s a weird name.” I’m brown-skinned and I’ve got these dreadlocks and I’ve got this Jewish last name.” ~ Lenny Kravitz
78. “Every time I meet the CEO of a record label I tell them how they did it in the seventies because they want to know. I tell them, “Sign a hundred people! Throw it against the wall and see which ones stick!” And they frown and say, “Oh, we can’t do that!” and they start mumbling about demographics and this and that.” ~ Tony Visconti
79. “I don’t have any pressure on myself. I don’t have a big record label backing me. I’m doing it all myself.” ~ Melanie Brown
80. “We definitely needed to spend a good solid year just finding ourselves before anyone would even notice us. We had our fan-base growing around here in Los Angeles, but I wouldn’t even have wanted anyone to come out to see us that was from a record label or something like that at that time, because we really needed to feel ourselves out as a live band.” ~ Theresa Wayman
81. “Jack Johnson became a superstar and started his own record label, and then he made and produced my first record, he co-wrote the songs on there, and then he let me open up for him for two years all around the world. And that was like the best start I could’ve had, the best way I could’ve started in the music scene.” ~ Donavon Frankenreiter
82. “I hear some new artists that sound country but the record labels and country radio lean more toward a more rock feel for what gets signed to a label and played on the radio.” ~ George Jones
83. “I was just thinking of Rush. I went to see Rush a few years ago, because my record label guy in the States really wanted to go. We had crazy good seats. It was fascinating watching the crowd – mostly men – who were so moved by these really esoteric lyrics. I don’t know Neil Peart’s lyrics super well, but they’re not that straightforward to me.” ~ Sarah Harmer
84. My favorite record label of all time is Motown. That era of music was my favorite. – Kanye West
85. “Willow Smith started making music first. I was like, “My younger sister is, like, 4, and she’s making all these fire songs. What’s happening?” Willow was doing all these things, about to have record label deals at like the age of 6, and I was like, “I feel like I’m underachieving.”” ~ Jaden Smith
86. “I just got a chance to see strong tenacity and a desire to be on top from some young women who have never seen six, seven women signed at a time to major record labels. But they believe that they can put their footprint in hip hop in a major way.” ~ MC Lyte
87. ‘We have meetings with our record label to tell them how to market us’. – Adam Jones
88. “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”. – James Blunt
89. “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
90. “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
91. “For me, I guess, just learning that just because there’s not a whole lot of female MCs on the front lines being supported by major record labels doesn’t mean they don’t exist. It doesn’t mean they don’t have the drive and the competitive nature and the will and the way.” ~ MC Lyte

Famous Record Label Quotes By Famous Musicians, Songwriters, And Music Producers

92. I remember when we were going to release ‘Dancing On My Own,’ and I went into the record label crying to them that I was terrified people wouldn’t support me anymore if they knew I was gay. – Calum Scott
93. When you’re 17 and a record label says, ‘Hey, do pop,’ you listen. – Brooke Hogan
94. I’d been doing my own thing, and making my own money; I wasn’t built by a record label or the music industry, nor was I built by prominent artists that have given me co-signs. – Vic Mensa
95. “The big, big record labels have so much control. I think too much control that it actually made their artists scared to not do what they were told and then the music suffers because of that dynamic and now there’s the power of the download.” ~ Joss Stone
96. 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
97. 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
98. 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
99. Anyone who’s an executive at a record label does not understand what the Internet is, how it works, how people use it, how fans and consumers interact – no idea. I’m surprised they know how to use e-mail. – Trent Reznor
100. I miss how a record label can help spread the word that you have something out. – Trent Reznor
101. 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
102. You no longer have to have a big record label behind you and have to kowtow to the politics that enabled you to get there. You can be a phenomenal artist and put your stuff out there on YouTube and find yourself becoming a star. – Eric Bischoff
103. 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
104. 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
105. 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
106. 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
107. My record label is treating me like I’m a new artist, which is exciting after all this time. – Rosanne Cash
108. 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
109. I’m developing artists for my new record label, my son’s band, Intangible, being one of them. Gary Wright
110. 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
111. 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 Being in a band is very much like a startup. You start in a garage. You hope to get interest from investors, like a major record label.- Kevin Jonas
112. Remember the Stax label and how if you liked one record, you liked all the others as well? You don’t talk to a lot of people who tell you how much they love their record label. I don’t care how many records they sell. – Darius Rucker
113. Island Records was the first record label to… acknowledge me. After that, quickly, Republic Records, and then Atlantic Records, Sony Records and Warner Bros. It was all the labels at once. It was absolutely insane, like, knowing that this many record labels were interested in me. – Shawn Mendes
114. 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
115. I remember in 2016 when I got signed to my record label Good Soldier, which is a very small indie label. They took a big risk on me because ballads were the furthest thing from cool at the time. – Freya Ridings
116. 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
117. I wanted to first build a platform and then use it to shine a light on music/people that I believe in. This record label is for people across all corners of the world, to showcase all genres of music. – DJ Snake
118. I want to record many albums, have a healthy record label with talented artists, keep building my publishing catalogue, and maintain our culture with good music that will be remembered for years to come. – Little Louie
119. 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
120. 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
121. 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. – Jorma Taccone
122. 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
123. 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
124. 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
125. 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.
126. 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
127. 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
128. 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
129. 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
130. I’ve remixed lots of other people’s songs, from Adele to Electric Light Orchestra to Beyonce, so when my record label said, ‘Why don’t you give ‘Ibiza’ to someone to remix?’ I said, ‘Sure,’ because I like the idea of people reimagining art and making something new out of it. – Mike Posner
131. At 18, I finally came into a relationship with a record label. My family got back on its feet. I was happy. – Christina Milian
132. If you’re making a film about a band or a songwriter or whomever, there’s a publisher, there’s a record label, and there are people who are vested interests in that film. But with back-up singers, because they did stuff for everybody, there’s no one party that has any vested interest in seeing the story told. – Morgan Neville
133. I just think that any person who wants music to be their career shouldn’t focus on a record label. I have seen friends who sign to a label too early in their career, and they lost control over their music, and their releases were delayed or never put out. – Lauv
134. I went from the most underground band in the world to signing with Madonna’s producer and a record label that is extremely mainstream – it was interesting. – Yasmine Hamdan
135. I figured it out at a young age: I could meet as many young people online and try to form my own family or my own record label group. – Kevin Abstract
136. I’m lucky enough to exist in 2018, where I have a record label that’s like, ‘Write whatever you want to write.’ I don’t have to hide anything. – Troye Sivan
137. I wanted to play in bands and get signed by a record label and tour the world and stuff, but that never really worked out. – Ramin Djawadi
138. Mark Ronson was a dear friend through family and through growing up in New York, being in that scene, and Mark came to a show and really liked it and asked us to join his record label Allido records, or ‘all I do’ records, and that was sort of a development deal. – Domino Kirke
139. 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
140. 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
141. I certainly don’t want to be a record label guy. – Guy Picciotto
142. I’ve been doing my record label for 15 years called Dim Mak. I started my label when I was 19 in ’96. I started putting out an eclectic roster of artists. In 2003, we found a band called Bloc Party, and in 2004, we started getting remixes for Bloc Party, and at the same time I was throwing Dim Mak parties in Los Angeles. – Steve Aoki
143. My plan was always to leave school and live in a flat with some friends, have a 9 to 5 job, and try to get as many gigs as I could. I wanted to keep writing and then eventually, in my twenties, head to a record label and hope they’d sit down and listen to my book of songs, sign me as a songwriter and maybe an artist in development. – Ella Henderson
144. 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
145. I still stand behind the stuff I did early on, but I was on a record label, and I didn’t have a lot of creative control. Another side of that is just being young and having bad taste. There was plenty of that, too. – Solange Knowles
146. When I got my first email from a record label, I decided I didn’t want to go in with just one song, so I sat down and kept on writing. – Ruth B
147. When I first was a part of ‘The Monster,’ I really wanted to put it out under my name, but no record label thought it was good enough – until Eminem liked it. – Bebe Rexha
148. I want to have a publishing company and a record label, and I want to manage five artists… eventually. – Charli XCX
149. “I’m not ruling out music forever. I’d love to do that, but if I ever did, I don’t think it would be with a record label or anything like that. It might even look like me finding a band and kind of playing in bars. “- Maia Mitchell
150. A record is a commodity, but so is a hamburger. Just because I work at McDonald’s doesn’t mean I reap the benefits of that commodity. That’s the reality with most artists in the record industry: They’re getting paid a subsistence wage so they can keep producing a commodity for the record label. – Boots Riley
151. I feel like some artists need a record label, and some don’t. – Freddie Gibbs
152. We had a heroic attitude to artistic freedom, and we thought normal contracts were a bit vulgar – somehow not punk. But that was the whole point – we weren’t a regular record label. – Tony Wilson
153. If a new artist comes, and he doesn’t have a good record label to invest in him, then there is no point. – Guru Randhawa
154. We believe that the Internet is the live concert promoters best friend although it might have crippled the record label business. – Michael Rapino
155. 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. – Mathew Knowles
156. The record label used to try and make us do stuff, like dance, and we’d say, nah, not doing that. – Keren Woodward