“In this industry, you have to work really fucking hard and surround yourself with brilliant people. It’s about that. And just not being a cunt.” Sammy Andrews, director, Entertainment Intelligence, July 11
“I hated record labels for pretty much my entire career as a musician. I had to make Bella Union a label I’d want to be on.” Simon Raymonde, founder, Bella Union, July 18
“Secondary ticketing is a function of inefficient ticket pricing. If we are able to create a system where the promoter can understand how to properly price their inventory, the need for brokers would diminish.” Julia Hartz, CEO, Eventbrite, July 25
“Streaming services drive me crazy. They’re dominated by major labels.” Daniel Glass, president, Glassnote, August 1
“The concert business is valued at $25 billion. The assumption is that’s only 50% of everything sold, so it could be [worth] $50bn.” Matt Jones, CEO, Songkick, August 15
“I need brave people. People in the music business at the moment are not willing to take risks.” Dumi Oburota, co-founder, Disturbing London, August 22
“It’s dangerous to write off the download, a format that many people still love. We can see some good reasons behind the decline, but I don’t think we’re overly worried about the fact that it might completely disappear.” Paul Firth, head of digital music, Amazon UK, August 29
“We’re not for everybody. But powerful, potent brands aren’t. You have to be a fairly wet brand to be for everybody.” Mike Walsh, head of music/deputy programme director, Radio X, September 5
“Everybody is part and parcel of the success of an act. Behind every successful A&R man there’s a whole fucking record company.” Darcus Beese (pictured), president, Island Records, September 12
“Challenging the perception that the independents are too weak to negotiate; challenging the perception that the independents are a soft touch… That’s been the common denominator of everything we’ve done.” Alison Wenham, chair/CEO, AIM, September 19
“We never forget that we work for our artists. We’re service-driven, not ego-driven.” Alexi Cory-Smith, EVP, BMG UK, September 26
“You can sit there and worry about Armageddon coming, but you’ve just got to get on with it and find something great.” Rak Sanghvi, managing director, UK & international, Spirit B-Unique, October 17
“The Commercial Group isn’t the frontline label, we’re not the big, sexy, shiny new artists... But there’s nothing cooler than selling a million records.” Nicola Tuer, COO, Sony Music UK & Ireland, November 14
“If the music industry keeps getting more and more fragmented, Twitter is still going to be the place people come together to talk about that music.” Georgina Parnell, head of entertainment partnerships, Twitter UK, November 21
“Streaming is arguably the most significant moment of change for music, never mind the industry. It’s allowing a fundamentally different universe to exist.” George Ergatoudis, head of content programming, Spotify UK, November 28
“Bottom line: we’re all signing too many well-intentioned album acts that our consumer doesn’t want.” Guy Moot, managing director, UK & president, European creative, Sony/ATV, December 5
“We’re now on the cusp of secondary ticketing change, measures will be taken to curb this racket.” Richard Davies, founder, Twickets, December 12
