Justine Skye Quotes

The new artist is meeting the general public before they meet the record company. They're able to put the material on YouTube and have a million views before they even meet an executive at a record company, and get the deal based on that.

I started writing music when I was 15 in my bedroom, and I'd post them on MySpace, and from there it shifted to doing covers on YouTube and building my Twitter.

YouTube provides a unique opportunity for all musicians to market and promote their music and directly engage their fans.

If you're an artist, create music and put it out on the Internet. If you do this consistently, your fan base will continue growing, and that will power your entire career.

I could always play the drums, so I have some musical talent, but I don't live in Atlanta or LA, so I can't just randomly bump into major artists. So instead, I started building my fan base and my name by networking through the internet. Mostly through Twitter, Youtube, Instagram and Facebook.

A lot of what's happened with my career has been because of the Internet. It's a way for me to reach fans directly, especially with music.

I have a fan base worldwide, man. I think they're really down for me. That's how I got signed - 30,000 fans retweeting Rick Ross.

There are certainly things labels can still provide that indie artists can't. They can pave the way to radio and pay big bucks for promotion.

There are people who are genetically made to start record labels, and I'm not one of those people. People just have it in their blood and are good at it. Corey Rusk from Touch and Go and Ian MacKaye. These are people who have made their own labels.

My whole career began because I was always putting my music on the Internet. By the time I had my first tour, I had an audience everywhere I went, because people were listening online.

Social media and music in general have been changing so fast. You can go on Twitter and go from one artist to another. What I really like about it is the opportunity to communicate directly with your fans.

I love music and musicians. And seeing great artists dropped from labels was really frustrating and sad to me.

I was signed to a record label at the same time as my friend Elliot Murphy, who makes great records to this day.

I don't think they like the idea that the people who are buying the record get to choose what goes out, because it's their job. The fans even pre-ordered stock to make sure that I had some sort of presence.

I was always looking to record, but how much I actually pursued it was another thing. The major labels weren't that interested in me, and the smaller labels didn't have any money to do anything.

I am a singer first and foremost. I was lucky enough to have a manager, when I was 15, who knew the heads of a lot of record labels at the time.

Good bands won't get famous anymore unless they get really lucky.

Artists were nurtured back in the '70s. Their music was developed by the record companies.

I think 'Interscope' always puts the artist first, and they're focusing on these artists' development. I felt like that was a part of my career that I kind of needed to focus on after having come from the radio and getting exposure that way. I wanted to grow my brand and grow my fanbase, and they have proven to be the best fit for that.

I was on Tumblr when I was 12 or 13. I was on YouTube, too. I had a channel and made music videos. It had 50,000 subscribers.

I want a long-lasting career. I want to build up a fan base that will come to my shows and love me no matter if I have a song on the radio or not.

When I met the people at Warner, they were very excited about my style and making me into this big theatrical artist.

When we first started in '04 or '05, that's when social media started to become a way to release music and connect with fans - and our fans were kind of at the forefront of that.

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.

I do love the social-media aspect of working records nowadays. You can do a video and put it up on social media, and people check you out who would never check you out before. I think it's much cooler that you can just get the product right to the fans.