Radiohead and Atoms For Peace frontman Thom Yorke, never one to shy away from expressing his opinion, has pulled a selection of his music from Spotify.
In a stand against the exploitation of emerging artists, Thom Yorke's first solo effort The Eraser and the recent album by his Atoms For Peace side project Amok were both down taken from the streaming store.
"Make no mistake new artists you discover on Spotify will no get paid. Meanwhile shareholders will shortly being rolling in it," tweeted Yorke yesterday, claiming that the service is unfair to new bands and artists.
Long-time Radiohead producer, and Atoms For Peace member, Nigel Godrich, joined Yorke in the stand. The self-titled debut album of Godrich's other project, Ultraísta (yes, these guys are pretty busy these days), was also withdrawn. All of Radiohead's albums except In Rainbows remain on Spotify.
Hail to the Thief
Godrich also took to Twitter to open up a little bit more about it all, explaining the decision in 140-character bursts.
"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..." said Godrich.
"..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."
British electronic artist Four Tet (aka Kieran Hebden) also piped up to voice his support for Yorke and Godrich, tweeting "exactly…I had everything on my label taken off. Don't want to be part of this crap."
Spotify CEO and founder Daniel Ek then pitched in and tweeted, "So far I've not seen any cannibalisation. So question should be - Why shouldn't you do streaming?"
"Plus this isn't apples to apples. So look longer than first few weeks and streaming is often bigger revenue than downloads."
Some fans were also less enthused by the move, with one telling Yorke, "Your small meaningless rebellion is only hurting your fans." Thom responded: "No we're standing up for our fellow musicians".
Spotify responded to TechRadar with a statement: "Right now we're still in the early stages of a long-term project that's already having a hugely positive effect on artists and new music. We've already paid US$500M to rightsholders so far and by the end of 2013 this number will reach US$1bn. Much of this money is being invested in nurturing new talent and producing great new music.
"We're 100% committed to making Spotify the most artist-friendly music service possible, and are constantly talking to artists and managers about how Spotify can help build their careers."
