I’m gonna guess Thom Yorke hasn’t listened to that hot new Moby album on Spotify yet. In an interview with Mexico’s Sopitas.com, the Radiohead frontman had the following to say about the online streaming service:
“I feel like the way people are listening to music is going through this big transition. I feel like as musicians we need to fight the Spotify thing. I feel that in some ways what’s happening in the mainstream is the last gasp of the old industry. Once that does finally die, which it will, something else will happen. But it’s all about how we change the way we listen to music, it’s all about what happens next in terms of technology, in terms of how people talk to each other about music, and a lot of it could be really f*cking bad. I don’t subscribe to the whole thing that a lot of people do within the music industry that’s, ‘Well this is all we’ve got left. We’ll just have to do this.’ I just don’t agree.
When we did the In Rainbows 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 f*ckers 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 sh*t ourselves, so f*ck off. But because they’re using old music, because they’re using the majors…the majors are all over it because they see a way of re-selling all their old stuff for free, make a fortune, and not die. That’s why to me, Spotify the whole thing, is such a massive battle, because it’s about the future of all music. It’s about whether we believe there’s a future in music, same with the film industry, same with books.
To me this isn’t the mainstream, this is like the last fart, the last desperate fart of a dying corpse. What happens next is the important part. (Via)
“Mainstream (The Last Desperate Fart of a Dying Corpse)” is my favorite Radiohead song.
(Via Sopitas) (H/T CoS)
