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Business News Digital
Yorke still down on Spotify, says it’s getting in the way of direct-to-fan
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 7 October 2013
Thom Yorke’s still down on Spotify, in case you wondered. After he backed collaborator Nigel Godrich’s anti-Spotify ranting earlier this year, the Radiohead frontman was asked about the streaming music service in a recent interview with Mexico’s Sopitas.com (an interview translated by Consequence Of Sound).
Expanding a little on the theme so that his argument actually makes more sense, Yorke basically says that he feels the role of streaming platforms like Spotify has been exaggerated, and that the real revolution in music caused by the internet is the potential of direct-to-fan. And on that point he’s almost certainly correct, though I think even the biggest D2F advocates in the music industry reckon artist-controlled fan services can co-exist with online music platforms that utilise a wider catalogue.
But Yorke says that Spotify-type services are actually “the last gasp of the old industry”, before noting: “When we did the ‘In Rainbows’ [pay-what-you-want] thing, what was most exciting was the idea you could have a direct connection between you as a musician and your audience. You cut all of it out, it’s just that and that. And then all these fuckers get in a way, like Spotify suddenly trying to become the gatekeepers to the whole process. We don’t need you to do it. No artists needs you to do it. We can build the shit ourselves, so fuck off”.
You can read more of Yorke’s recent Spotify ramblings on Consequence Of Sound here.
