The Cannes conference is over for another year, and the music business is back in rainy old England. But who came up with the best soundbites of the four days? Here’s Music Week’s selection of favourites…
“We’re on a path to do something big and something long-term,” – Pandora’s Tim Westergren rules out a sale
“It’s awesome to give a song away. I’m so grateful that I tried so damn hard to become an artist and failed miserably,” – songwriter Justin Tranter on why he prefers being behind the scenes these days.
“While we definitely need to give some power back to the user, we should also definitely be giving more power back to the artists,” Ei’s Sammy Andrews on the power of data
“We had discussions with Google during the selling of the Michael Jackson interest to Sony/ATV. Of course, it didn’t happen. Sony didn’t let it happen,” – Joel Katz, Greenberg Traurig, on Google’s attempt to buy a publishing company
“For me, my job has actually never really changed. The fundamental mission we have is to help artists reach an expanding audience,” Warner Music Group’s Stu Bergen has it easy
“As soon as they grow to a major size, we barely get a backstage pass, because they have the live revenue. The business isn’t all live. But [record labels] are a forgotten species right now,” Glassnote’s Daniel Glass on the trouble with being in recorded music these days
“No disrespect to the labels but they cut themselves out. The labels back in the day were totally arrogant. They thought they could keep pushing product at people who were going to buy at any price. They thought they could dictate the lives of recording artists. And for a long time they forgot where the music comes from: the artists,” UTA’s Neil Warnock hits back on behalf of the live sector
"The biggest platform is hiding in safe harbours and undervalues content," – the IFPI’s Frances Moore targets YouTube (again)
“We promote stars because we have big data. We know where your fans are. We know everybody in China,” Alibaba Music’s Gao Xiaosong makes his sales pitch
“I always say I never sign a songwriter that I thought would write the No. 30 song on the chart. I sign the songwriter because I think they're going to write the No.1 song in the chart,” for Warner/Chappell’s Jon Platt, failure is not an option
