Quote

A record company used to be a very good thing, but they ended up soul-destroyingly trapping people in the accounting department. And you couldn't get any further, and the heads of each department were changing all the time, so you couldn't have any permanent relationship within the corporation.

The record companies fell apart - quite deservedly. Their corrupting, all-binding contract nonsense had to stop.

Mostly I've never let record companies become involved with my music, which was a very smart thing that my first manager Dave Robinson did, to keep them out of it.

I don't think that old-fashioned idea of record companies exists any more.

Now record companies are run by lawyers and accountants. The shift from the one to the other was definitely related to when the takes started to get big.

Originally, after 'Tambourine' came out, another record was supposed to come out, but I had issues with my record label at the time, which was Interscope. We couldn't agree on a record, so that took some time. I had to leave them and find a new label.

By the age of 17, for me, we had got an recording contract, and, boom, I was gone.

I think initially, the record industry struggled a lot with digital media because there are a lot of aspects to it that can potentially destroy our industry.

I didn't need to depend on the record company to publish my records.