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" I'm a very commonsense guy - I just look at the viability of the idea, if I feel the team has the ability to execute the idea. I also look at the investment syndicate, the size of the market, and then a lot of gut married on top of it. "

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" Once we started making investments, we realized the same service we provided to artists was applicable to entrepreneurs as well. "

Troy Carter

Same

Service

Started

" I come from a place where when you shake someone's hand, it is a deal. "

" To me, mentorships and internships are two big pillars in business development. I believe in having multiple mentors. "

" I was Jazzy Jeff's assistant. "

" There was a time when radio stations wouldn't play Gaga's music because it was considered dance. Outside of live performances, the Internet became our primary tool to help people discover her music. "

" When you sit down with Zynga and Google, and they talk about billions of impressions, you think, music has way more of an emotional connection than technology, but we haven't cracked the code. "

" You can't make an artist like Lady Gaga. You can help support, you can help develop the vision - I think you can add to the vision - but you just can't make an artist like that. That's like saying Lebron James' high school coach made Lebron James. "

" People don't buy horses to ride around any more for transportation. I just think the world changes. As a business, we have to make the proper adjustments. "

" There's less clutter in the beverage category than in the music category. A lot less clutter. "

" I like to compare the attitude and energy of an emerging start-up to that of the early hip-hop era. From working at labels like Bad Boy and Ruff Ryders, walking into the Def Jam offices, A Touch of Jazz and things like that, the vibe is that off making something out of nothing and making things work, and that's what I love about start-ups. "

" To me, as A&R people and as managers, we're in the business of finding talent. It's no different than working with these engineers who just want to make good products. "

Troy Carter

Talent

People

" I thought I was going to be a rapper as a kid and used to hop the train down to Jazzy Jeff's studio for, like, six months straight waiting outside of the studio for the big break, and one day we got in the studio and played our demo for Will and Jeff and quickly learned that we weren't that good. "

" Music is one of those businesses in which, if you're talented and hustle hard enough, you can make it - specifically as an entrepreneur. If you look as far back as Berry Gordy, Russell Simmons, Andre Harrell, L.A. Reid, and Sean 'Diddy' Combs, there's a whole lineage of successful black entrepreneurs who have built their own companies from scratch. "

" Fifty-one million likes doesn't mean we're going to sell 51m albums or concert tickets. "

" Spotify favors hits. It's very much a meritocracy: It's not like radio, where whatever is being played is what you hear. We offer songs up, and from there, it's up to consumers to stream the music or not. "

" Exclusives are bad for artists, bad for consumers, and bad for the whole industry. "

" When your back is against the wall, your brain has to function at a high level. "

" No one has bridged that gap between music and technology yet. "

" When we look at transportation in America, there's going to be companies like Magic Bus, where you have these private bus fleets. You're going to have carpooling; you're going to have these different types of transportation. It's going to be a full ecosystem, but it's not going to be a winner-takes-all. "

" I believe in outgrowing a mentor and getting a new one, and I think that you can never be too old to be schooled by your mentor. "

" As we look at Hollywood and the controversy around the Oscars, it goes back to the voting block and the lack of people who come from that culture. For example, the NWA movie is a fantastic, fantastic movie. You need people who can look at a piece of art like that and understand the artistry in it. "

" The venture capital world is completely stacked against minority entrepreneurs. "

" Priyanka and Red One made a great record that we think will stand on its own. People won't buy the music just because she is who she is. We want them to buy it because it's good. "

" When we're looking at strategic partners, it may be that they're larger partners or big corporations or start-ups. But, when you look at Gilt and places like Amazon and Starbucks, they're all places where it's a lot of foot traffic or digital traffic. "

" I think, as an industry, we should be supportive of a broad subscription model and not do anything to jeopardize the potential health of the music business - because we're not out of the woods yet. "

" Hip hop is a multi-billion dollar business, and it was built off an opportunity that nobody else saw because they didn't understand the culture. "

" So many black kids aspire to be entertainers or professional athletes because those are the only role models they see that look like them. There are only 300 jobs in the NBA but an endless amount of opportunities as an entrepreneur. With enough hustle, entrepreneurship opens doors to a world of opportunities. "

" You have a huge demographic shift that's happening in America. Globally. "

" I think overall, and this isn't specific to Spotify or any streaming service or any label... when you consider the overall value chain of the music industry and how important the songwriter is to the business - I think there needs to be another look at the value chain. "

" The way consumers interact with music is different now. It's not an albums business anymore; it's a singles business again, and the industry has gone through that before. "