Creativity Quote by Ben E. King

A working musician saying this isn’t philosophizing; it’s a flare shot up from inside the machine. When Ben E. King remarks, "The industry now wants to be in charge of everything", he’s pointing at a power shift that feels administrative but lands as deeply personal: control moving away from the artist’s voice and toward the corporate pipeline that packages it.

The line’s force comes from its plainness. "The industry" isn’t a villain with a face; it’s a system, an all-purpose noun that covers labels, managers, radio, promoters, publishers, lawyers, and later the platform-era gatekeepers. King doesn’t say it wants to be "involved" or "supportive". He says "in charge" - a phrase that carries the threat of permission slips: what gets recorded, how it’s marketed, where it’s placed, what image is sellable, what story is allowed to stick.

The little word "now" does a lot of work. It implies a before - a time when the business side was already powerful but still had to negotiate with artists’ charisma and local scenes. King came up in an era when soul singers could be molded by labels, yes, but could also cut through with undeniable records and touring demand. By the time of his later career, consolidation, branding logic, and rights control made music feel less like a relationship between performer and audience and more like an end-to-end product.

Subtext: it’s not just about money. It’s about authorship - who gets to decide what a musician is.