Atoms For Peace, Thom Yorke remove albums from music-streaming services
Radiohead's Thom Yorke and producer Nigel Godrich have removed their albums from music-streaming services such as Spotify and Rdio, saying that "it's bad for new music".
- Webby Award honoree, 2x Gold Telly Award winner
Radiohead's Thom Yorke and producer Nigel Godrich have removed their albums from music-streaming services such as Spotify and Rdio, saying that "it's bad for new music".
In a series of tweets, Godrich cited several reasons for removing music by his band fronted by Yorke, Atoms For Peace. "We're off of Spotify," Godrich began. "Someone gotta say something. It's bad for new music.
"The music industry is being taken over by the back door. And if we don't try and make it fair for new music producers and artists, then the art will suffer. Make no mistake. These are all the same old industry bods trying to get a stranglehold on the delivery system. The numbers don't even add up for Spotify yet. But it's not about that. It's about establishing the model, which will be extremely valuable."
The albums in question that have been removed include Amok by Atoms For Peace, the self-titled album by Godrich's other project Ultraista, and Yorke's solo record The Eraser.
Yorke also reiterated his position on Twitter:
Make no mistake new artists you discover on #Spotify will no get paid. meanwhile shareholders will shortly being rolling in it. Simples.
— Thom Yorke (@thomyorke) July 14, 2013
While Godrich and Yorke use Spotify interchangeably as a term for other music-streaming services, the albums have also disappeared from Rdio and Deezer.
In 2007, Radiohead released In Rainbows, a record that was widely cited as spearheading a pay-what-you-want model, where listeners could choose how much to pay for music. That album is not available on Spotify, but can be streamed on Rdio.
Spotify has a detailed outline on how it pays artists and labels on its website.
Yorke and Godrich are not the first to remove music from music-streaming services. Kieran Hebden, who records under the name Four Tet, also tweeted that he has removed music from these services.
Other notable bands that have decided not to make their catalogues available on music-streaming services include AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. Pink Floyd recently released its back-catalogue once 1 million users had streamed "Wish You Were Here" on Spotify.
Godrich also shared his opinion on bands with a significant catalogue behind them. "Pink Floyd's catalogue has already generated billions of dollars for someone (not necessarily the band), so now putting it on a streaming site makes total sense. But if people had been listening to Spotify instead of buying records in 1973 ... I doubt very much if dark side would have been made. It would just be too expensive."