Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
For the label to grow, it has to have great executives who understand the culture, understand the mission, and can lead. I don't want to be part of every decision.
Part of the mission of Nash Icon is taking away some of the day-to-day, hand-to-hand combat that you have to do to continue the mainstream country-radio relationship.
The nicest thing that my friends who've known me for 15 or 20 years say to me is, 'Man, it's crazy that you're the same guy.' It's like, 'Which guy did you expect me to be?'
We're not too top heavy with executives. I don't have to check with New York or L.A. My crew walks in, we talk about something, and either we do it or we don't. There's not a long, drawn out process.
I grew up in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California in the 1970s. My friends and I were into bicycle motocross and into skateboarding in empty swimming pools. Those activities shaped my generation.
So much time and attention has been spent on streaming that we've really gotten away from some of the things that we could have, energywise, put into working together with radio more closely for terrestrial.
Most of our artists are songwriters, so the songs are still central to all this. If you don't have great songs, it doesn't matter the marketing or how many times you are on TV; you can only polish it so much.
Some people are just gifted with a great voice, other people are gifted with great emotion, other people are gifted with great engagement - when you find all of those things in one package, you have Taylor Swift.
There are a lot of similarities, even though we're in two different businesses: There's the Taylor Swift business and the Big Machine Label Group business, but there's a huge intersection there. When we're together, it's limitless.
I don't want to worry about someone calling me and going, 'You better find a way to get another Taylor Swift record out this quarter.' When there's that kind of financial pressure dictating your path, it's hard to take creative risks.
We came up with all these crazy ideas that Taylor Swift could be the biggest artist in the world - and it came true - and that we could have five labels and become the biggest independent record company in the world - and it came true.
As an artist development platform, we've proven that all the work done behind the scenes at American Idol, along with surviving the rigors of the intense live shows, can properly prepare a winner for a real-world music career opportunity.
When we grew up, we couldn't wait to get our hands on cars, work with them, change the look of them. Now you see kids being like, 'I'll just take the Uber,' or 'Oh, I don't even have my driver's license yet.' I'm like, 'Ugh, who are you people?'
Something that I've told all of my young artists is, there are going to be haters. You're going to read things that are going to hurt you. It's not going to make any sense. Just know that it's out there and that it's really easy to just press 'delete.'
In 1985, I went to work for MTM Records, Mary Tyler Moore's Nashville record label, and stayed three years. After that, I spent two years as an independent promoter, then worked for MCA Nashville Records, DreamWorks Nashville, and Universal Music Nashville.
The reality of recording, it's one of the most intimate things that an artist ever does because if you do it right, you're exposing yourself, and you're expressing your emotions, and those are the key attributes to a big record that really connect with people.
When we first started, I had the time to personally live every project. As I continue to build the company, I've learned much better ways to delegate and let the executive team run. It's just as exciting for me to see the executives succeed as it is the artists.
When I started the label, I stopped racing. Even though I have a better chance of getting hurt walking outside and falling down the stairs, if I had gotten injured on the racetrack, people would be going, 'What is this guy doing?' So I had to grow up a little bit.
My father was in record promotion in Los Angeles. He worked for Mercury Records, Capitol Records, and RCA Records. My parents divorced when I was about 9. In 1978, my dad moved to Nashville and opened an independent record promotion company, Mike Borchetta Promotions.
It doesn't matter if it's social media or radio media or television media - it's all media, and it's all marketing. It's about understanding where your fans are. And when you have infiltrated them, and they're satisfied, and there's demand, how do you grow it from there?
Without naming names, you can take some of the biggest artists of the last 25-30 years and point to those moments where they thought they were going to be movie stars, put the entire weight of a film on their back, and it failed. And some of them didn't recover from that.
I don't know that you can set out to be a brand. For us, it happened very organically, and we never rushed it or leaned on it too hard. I felt a true culture had started to emerge several years into the Machine, so we started trying some things, starting with simple stuff like cool merch.
A lot of times in a record company environment, it's, 'All right, go out on the road, go get some experience, come back in six months, and we'll see where we are.' I've erased that. Now it's, 'This is what we're working on today. I expect you to come in tomorrow and address this and be better.'
The fans reaction to the record (Red) is incredible. Taylor has been reading many tweets lately and wanted to thank her fans with what they ask for the most. We're planning to record the 10 Minute Version of All Too Well and a music video. She's busy with touring right now but we will find some time.