A Quote by Matt Skiba

There are just as many dirt bags in independent music as there are in major labels. — © Matt Skiba
There are just as many dirt bags in independent music as there are in major labels.
I don't really see a difference in independent and major labels. To me, it's pretty much the same. There used to be a difference between indies and major labels, but I don't think there is anymore.
I didn't expect major labels would embrace MySpace, and the original idea for music on the site was the unsigned bands, the independent bands.
I've been on a major label for 14 years. I've always wanted as many people as possible to hear my music, and it definitely made sense for the majority of my career to be on a major label, on a distribution level, to be in people's faces and be out there, and have access to major labels' incredible machine, even though they have not understood or haven't been invested in what I was doing.
Independent labels take nothing and make something out of it. Major labels buy that something, and try to make more out of it.
For new bands, I think a major label is the safest place to be. Independent labels are the ones getting away with murder. A lot of them are hobbyists who rip-off young bands, taking advantage of people who would never get signed to a major.
Equal Vision seems to be doing really well. A lot of these major labels are just imploding and becoming indie labels, anyway.
Independent artists and labels have always been the trendsetters in music and the music business.
Independent artists and labels have always been the trend setters in music and the music business.
I've had a very different career than a lot of other musicians. I went through the major labels. I was signed to two major labels and bands. I've toured with Aerosmith, and I've had records on the charts, songs in the movies. If you had checklist of things a person wants to accomplish in music...I've done a lot. And I don't mean that in an egotistical way; I never take it for granted. But you can't think outside the box unless you know what's in the box.
As a DJ, it's my job to break new music. And instead of it just being the stuff that's coming from the major labels or the big pop records, I've always gravitated to something that's just different, you know?
It ain't this big I, little You. Music is to be shared. Music is not a hustle. [Hip hop's become] cultural stripmining [by the major labels]. Some people get into this music to make a killing but music is a way to make a living.
When you are on a major record label, you're just forced to think big. You are forced to think about things like "how many radio spins did we get this week?" or "how many albums did we sell across the country. Being independent, you are just focused on the city that you are playing in tonight. How many people can I meet and become friends with tonight. That's one of the great things about being an independent artist.
With Napster and the sharing of music, of course, there are going to be people who exploit it. Greed has no end. But there's a lot of good that could happen. We shouldn't let the economic concerns of the major labels infringe on our freedom to share music.
Basically we just created our own label, but again we just did it to document our own music and create our own thing, so the major labels were just always out of our picture, we're not interested.
I never liked the idea of bags. I would say, "Why do so many of my friends spend so much money on these bloody bags?" But once I started designing them, I was completely hooked. There are all of these blogs about bags. It's a whole other industry, and I'm really excited to be a part of it.
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.
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