“Behind closed doors, they’ll tell you it’s over. Record companies can’t profit unless they retain ownership of artists’ work, and that’s why labels are in a bad situation. People with content are going to win.”
— Prince, laying down for USA Today the altered realities of the “new” music business
“The Internet is opening things up…. It’s broken the stranglehold that radio had. Downloading has made people more eclectic in their tastes, and I’d guess eventually that will redirect radio to loosen up, because it will have to compete. When that happens, you can say whatever you want, and there will be a place for it.”
— Paul Simon, speaking to USA Today in 2006 about the evolution of the music business.
“When I wanted good wine at five, and I knew that the grape juice I was taking in communion was crap. And I was like, ‘No. I want what Jacques Cousteau is drinking on that boat, that’s what I want.'”
— the divinely warped Tori Amos, in a 1999 interview on Canada’s MuchMusic Television, responding to a veejay who asked her when she first realized she saw the world a bit differently than everyone else
“Any song with the line ‘magic rainbow’ in it is disqualified from being a good anything.”
— my cranky British pal Mike Walker (whose genius is solely responsible for how GREAT this blog looks), in response to my assertion that the 2008 American Idol Coronation Song, David Cook’s “Time of My Life,” is, in actual fact, not that bad a tune.
