"The Last Desperate Fart of a Dying Corpse:" Why Thom Yorke of Radiohead Hates Spotify and Other Would-Be "Gatekeepers"

In this September 29th, 2013 interview, Rulo David of Mexico City's XHOF-FM (also known as Reactor 105) gets Radiohead's Thom Yorke to launch a full-on attack on Spotify (it gets really good around 17:50).

As I written before on this blog, Radiohead self-distributed their "In Rainbows" project starting in 2007 and were pioneers in demonstrating that content-producers with a loyal fanbase can get consumers to pay for their new content (in a custom package) even if that content is also available elsewhere for free.

Now, almost exactly six years after "In Rainbows" was first released as a pay-what-you-want download, Thom Yorke has clearly grown very unhappy with the intermediaries that have cropped up to offer music to internet subscribers:

"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 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. 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 is like the last fart, the last desperate fart of a dying corpse. What happens next is the important part."

Thanks to Mike Monello for the link.