Thom Yorke: Spotify Is ‘The Last Desperate Fart Of A Dying Corpse’

Thom Yorke: Spotify Is ‘The Last Desperate Fart Of A Dying Corpse’

English musician Thom Yorke has already made his feelings on music streaming services known: he doesn’t like them. But now he’s spoken at length about Spotify and the current state of music distribution and he’s… well, angry.

Speaking to the Mexican website Sopitas, Yorke has expanded on some of his criticisms of Spotify and its ilk. Here are a few highlights.

On digital music infrastructure:

“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.”

On the involvement of the labels:

“[B]ecause 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.”

On technology’s impact on creativity:

“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… It’s like this mind trick going on, people are like ‘with technology, it’s all going to become one in the cloud and all creativity is going to become one thing and no one is going to get paid and it’s this big super intelligent thing’. Bullshit.”

If it’s not already obvious, the interview is well worth listening to in full. [Sopitas via Guardian]

Picture: monophonic.grrrl/Flickr


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