Ali Shaheed Muhammad Quotes

If I start trying to make a record for what I think could possibly get played on radio, I'm dead.

You need a platform upon which to release an orchestral record, otherwise it's just going to be an obscurity.

I never, ever had it in my mind that I wanted to be in the record industry, because I still contend that the record industry is an insidious affair. It's this terrible collision between art and commerce, and it will always be that way.

So there was a way for you to get promoted and survive as an artist without worrying about AM radio hits.

We turned what is virtually a glorified independent label into one of the powerhouse labels in the town.

I saw an Elvis Presley movie Jailhouse Rock, where he gets out of jail and makes his own records and takes them to the radio stations himself. And then, he puts records in the store. After seeing that, I made records an put them in stores.

I certainly don't want to be a record label guy.

You don't want the biggest record deal as far as money goes, you just want to make sure that the people at the label really support your band and the music and stuff.

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.

As far as being on a major label, some labels get it and get what they have to do, and some labels don't. I don't think the label I'm on necessarily gets it, but I think over time they're gonna have to.

There was a bidding war between Epic Records and Jive - now RCA - which was bittersweet. Just having labels bid over me was really cool, but I ended up going with Jive because it felt better over there, and they have my favorite artists like Usher, Chris Brown, and Justin Timberlake.

I remember telling the head of Warner Brothers that if they'd just make a video for 'Ol' Red'... and if it didn't work, they could drop me from the label.

To go indie is a thing. But to put an album in the stores, you need a distribution label.

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.

I don't want a record company, but I need one, unfortunately.

I just have so much love for my record label.

I think that there will always be artists out there who think they need to sign a major label deal in order to be successful. And that machine is what is going to work for them - there's tons of examples of pop stars who need that machine.

I know being on a major label is meant to be antiquated, but we're fine with it.

I was with PolyGram; that was the big label that I was with for the longest, like 12 years.

I used to run record companies, and I went to the advertising business at 29 years old.

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.

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.

I have known from the beginning one thing you need to know. That is, the music business is a business.

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.

When the first record came out, I'd go down to radio stations pretty much every day to get the record played, and I would walk in and they'd tell us how much they loved the record, but they weren't sure how much they could play it because they were already playing a girl.