Keri Hilson Quotes

I was just finishing high school and entering college in 1988, when the Creator's Bill of Rights was drafted, and had already set my sights on building a career as a writer of comics. Discovering the Creator's Bill of Rights - in an issue of 'The Comics Journal,' if I'm not mistaken - I accepted it as gospel.

In this age when people expect to get their music for free, we have to work out how we can protect the rights of creative artists so they are compensated fairly and that the record business itself remains sound and healthy.

Big Tech's nonchalance about copyright violation tramples over people like my wife and me, who strive to make a living in the great tradition of the creative realm.

It's hard for new artists to keep hold of what they own.

As songwriters, we are lucky to have ASCAP on our side, offering support and fighting for our rights.

We need to create technologies - and a culture of respect, and an updated legal doctrine, too - that allow creative folks to make money from their own efforts.

My strongest message is: 'Never give your songs away. Never sign a contract you can't get out of.'

I understand that music is a business, but for people who have control of their stuff, like little Taylor and other artists, I think you'll find them standing up for their music every chance they get.

It's not the norm when creators have any protections with regards to creative control. And so it took some time, I think, for the strip to gain enough popularity where I had enough leverage to come in and say, "It has to be done in a certain way or it's not going to be done at all," and then have people willing to put up with that who were ultimately paying for it. You know, for them to be willing to kind of concede those kind of things. It just takes time, you know?

I often call Daptone the Motown and Stax of today. But in some ways it's different. At Motown, a lot of the musicians didn't get recognized, music got stolen, and people didn't get paid. Or the label would just throw them a pinch of money for their songs. That is one thing we're not doing. Anything anyone writes here, we get a percentage.

I believe in the cause, and I believe in the people, and by supporting Music Rights Awareness, I very much hope - and believe - we can make a difference.

I believe in full albums, and whatever comes out of those full albums will come.

I'm not desperate to sign, like, a record deal. I'm very hungry, but I'm just not desperate for it.

It's hard to give your song away. They're like your kids.

Governments can help support European music by promoting public awareness that when people take music that doesn't belong to them, they undermine the future of those very artists whose work they enjoy.

The music industry isn't unionised in the same way Hollywood is. If I've got a problem, who do I go to?

At the end of the day, I earn a living by creating music and not sharing it with anyone because I am my own master. I know my worth.

It's important to know the ins and outs of the music business, but you can also dive too deeply into it and forget that you're really here to make music.

Artists have to be represented properly and paid properly.

If somebody makes a record, no matter how many years later it's released, they or their families should be entitled to the proceeds.

I have mixed feelings about Napster. I like what it can do for an unsigned band. It can help them sell 10,000 records. But for an established artist, there's already so much piracy around. They need to regulate it.

When you go pick out my album, the money actually comes to me and my company directly.

You have laws to protect oil men, so why not artists?

The tricky thing is music is supposed to be very mysterious; the way it's made is mysterious. Then people like to get upset with the music business.

I always said, if I got a record deal, I'd want to record the best songs I could, whether I wrote them or not.