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I always tell people, 'The music's free. I get paid to travel.'

When people who are songwriters say 'That's my property and if you give it away for free then I'll lose my incentive,' then, well, good riddance.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't think music should be free.

I drop free music because I want people to know I'm still working. I want people to know I'm working and making my money independently. I don't want to charge for a mixtape; I'd rather charge for an album and really give something to my fans.

I mean, the way I see it is, every penny I've ever made through music is free money.

On everything I do I'm always taking someone's money, whether it's a movie studio or a record label. Somebody's paying for it, and I'm always respectful of that. But I'm never going to compromise.

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.

On those, I've said it before, I work free. It's the waiting they pay me for.

I never had huge amounts of money when I was young. I had huge amounts of fame, and I always had the sense of labor and recompense. I always said I don't want to work for pay, but I want to get paid for my song.

When somebody's never heard you, that's the way to do it: Just give them music for free and let them decide for themselves if they like it or not.