Spotify – the Thom Yorke debate
Earlier this month, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and his producer Nigel Godrich came out against music straming services, particularly Spotify.
As Spotify continues to grow into the Worlds #1 streaming site, so its detractors grow.
In the blue corner – Thom Yorke. He took to Twitter to say “Make no mistake new artists you discover on #Spotify will no get paid. Meanwhile shareholders will shortly be rolling in it. Simples”.
In the red corner – Spotify. As reported in The Guardian, they say that “Spotify’s goal is to grow a service which people love, ultimately want to pay for, and which will provide the financial support to the music industry necessary to invest in new talent and music.”
See the whole guardian article here
Yorke & Godrich are not the first artists to make a stand. The likes of The Black Keys, Led Zeppelin & King Crimson have refused to make their songs available. There is a link here, it is established artists who are taking a stand, new artists tend to cast the net wide to capture all possible streams.
Where do we go? Streaming is growing. In 2012 global music sales rose for the first time in over a decade. Spotify pays the artist, piracy doesn’t, some alternative streaming services do not. Streaming is still in its infancy and the model will continue to develop. Until another model presents itself as the future for music streaming and Spotify will continue to grow. For artists, labels, managers, Music publishers, the debate continues…
