Three days ago, Thom Yorke and Nigel Goldrich pulled their latest album, Amok, (with supergroup Atoms for Peace) from Spotify streaming. The artists were not silent about the decision, announcing via twitter their distate for the music streaming company, citing it as a roadblock for new artists to create music. (Read our story here).

Just yesterday, Spotify responded to their digs, reassuring the public that the company’ is indeed “artist-friendly.” Although the spokesperson’s answer could’ve been expected, today Radiohead manager Brian Message stepped up with something else to say about the rapidly growing outlet:

“I think myself and a whole range of managers look at new technology developments such as Spotify as a good thing. The Internet is a really cutting edge way of fans and artists to communicate with each other… Streaming services are a very new way for artists and fans to engage.

As a manager of Thom, I obviously sit up and take note of when he says, ‘Listen guys we need to look at how this works.’ It’s a good, healthy debate that this is going on right now… He’s rightly asking the question of, come on guys, ‘What’s in this for new music and new artists?’ I think we’re all sitting there and debating what this is. And as the model gets bigger, I think we’ll find it’ll become a place where artists and managers and all creators can receive what they regard as being equitable remuneration…

It’s not black and white, it’s a complicated area. There’s been over 20 attempted reviews of copyright and how it operates within the internet era, and there has been no satisfactory solution to it. The bottom line is, technology is here to stay; evolution of technology is always going to go on. It’s up to me as a manager to work with the likes of Spotify and other streaming services to best facilitate how we monetize those for the artists that we represent. It’s not easy but it’s great to have the dialogue.” 

The saga continued after the BBC interview, when Godrich who later tweeted:

We still have yet to hear about Thom Yorke’s feelings on Message’s Spotify support. However, when asked specifically about Yorke’s decision to pull the music, Message answered:

“I’m going to see them this week, we’ve been debating this. Look, there was lots of hot debates about what happened with In Rainbows. The band and us, we came up with an idea of a pay-what-you-want model, which was the right thing for Radiohead to do at that point in their career. What I thought was great about that piece was the fact that it was an artist prepared to get up, you know, be empowered and do something that was different that they felt was right.” 

Only time will tell what may happen with future Radiohead/ Atoms for Peace / Yorke music, but for now, Yorke and Godrich’s opinions are clear in regards to the matter.