David Berman Quotes

Anything can wait for a hit record. That, after all, is what everyone wants at the end of the day.

Nobody's going to sell 10 million records by not working hard.

What my whole object was is not to really sell records. I was trying to sell songs.

As for the music business itself, the key things have not changed that much. It operates like any business and money still keeps things moving.

I enjoy touring. I enjoy recording the music, I enjoy dreaming it and I enjoy performing it. I also definitely enjoy selling it, because I like to eat.

The desire to hit a big home run is dominating the music business.

Music is so hard. It's a struggle to get people to care. It's hard to make an impact in today's world because people aren't buying records anymore.

Traditionally the show must go on which is a stupid thing to say, but that in a nutshell is what's going on. We have a new record out; if we won't tour, the new record dies. It's reality - it's what business is nowadays. You just need to tour to sell your albums.

Nowadays, you have to sell, like, half a million or a million records just to break even.

Our managers hadn't had that kind of success - the record company hadn't, we hadn't - and the feeling was that the next record had to be even bigger, and if it wasn't it would be some kind of failure.

Records are very powerful promotional tools to go out and be able to play on the road, but you do have to think about it as a way of sustaining itself at some point.

MTV made a huge impact. Heavy rotation took you from selling 1m albums to 20m albums, and that meant a lot of dough.

Of course, I want to sell this record - there's no point making it otherwise.

Even an independent label is looking for a hit, they're not looking for a record that's not gonna do well.

I've sold a lot of records. Did I keep other artists from eating?

When I started playing music, people weren't selling 5 million records. That was not the standard; that was not the focus.

It's crazy to make records nobody buys. It's just a waste of time.

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.

My record company certainly wants me to play live, badly, but I have no such plans. My only motivation to do such a thing would be money, and I don't think that's a good reason to play live.

I mean, when we put out our first album, it was 'Gosh, we really hope it sells 100,000 copies. That was the innocence.

I guess if I'd have more of a producer attitude, maybe I'd sell more records. But I'm basically a songwriter.

Instead, of worrying if something will be a hit, bands need to go out and make good music, get a following, play live. That's how you make a career these days.

If we waited for a hit record to tour, we would never have toured.

I don't think most rock stars are particularly calculating. I don't think they sit there and think, 'I will do this; therefore, on Monday, I will sell another 200,000 records'.

I had to work a lot. I was doing YouTube videos, but I wasn't getting a lot of love. How do I make a living off rapping when no one knows me? I got kind of discouraged. But hard work shuts people up.