Recently, we’ve all heard various artists voice in protest about the all too common act of buying music via outlets such as iTunes, Pandora, etc. etc. Jack White’s been advocating vinyls for years now, but just today Nigel Godrich and Thom Yorke hopped on the go-out-and-actually-buy-the-fucking-album bandwagon as well. Amok, the first album from their supergroup Atoms for Peace, was pulled from Spotify earlier today.
Not ironically, their explanations were posted via their Twitter accounts. Yorke tweeted, “Make no mistake new artists you discover on #Spotify will not get paid. meanwhile shareholders will shortly being rolling in it. Simples.”
Godrich explained the decision more thoroughly, bringing up some pretty fair points. Small artists are facing some pretty big problems funding their music. No money- no music. Plain and simple. The musicians firmly believe applications such as Spotify are standing in the way of new music. It’s a bold, yet very significant point that the the star-studded supergroup is making here:
“The reason is that new artists get paid fuck all with this model.. It’s an equation that just doesn’t work. 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 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. The numbers don’t even add up for spotify yet.. But it’s not about that.. It’s about establishing the model which will be extremely valuable. Meanwhile small labels and new artists can’t even keep their lights on. It’s just not right. Plus people are scared to speak up or not take part as they are told they will lose invaluable exposure if they don’t play ball. Meanwhile Millions of streams gets them a few thousand dollars.. Not like radio at all.. Anyway. Thems the breaks. Opinions welcome.. but discussion and new thinking necessary.. If you have a massive catalogue – a major label… for example.. then you’re quids in. It’s money for old rope.. But making new recorded music needs funding.. Some records can be made in a laptop, but some need musician and skilled technicians.. These things cost money.. Pink floyds catalogue has already generated billions of dollars for someone(not necessarily the band) so now putting it on a streaming site makes total sense.. But if people had been listening to spotify instead of buying records in 1973… I doubt very much if dark side would have been made.. It would just be too expensive… I think the point is – that streaming suits catalogue.. But cannot work as a way of supporting new artists work.. Spotify and the like either have to address that fact and change the model for new releases or else all new music producers should be bold and vote with their feet. They have no power without new music..”