Radiohead frontman quits Spotify in royalties dispute
Radiohead’s lead singer, Thom Yorke, has quit Spotify in a bitter row over royalties, complaining that ‘new artists get paid fuck all’ by the music streaming service.
Yorke ditched the platform, taking all his solo songs and those from his Atoms for Peace group with him, before launching a bitter tirade on Twitter with producer Nigel Godrich to outline his rationale.
Godrich tweeted: "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.
"Streaming suits [back] catalogue. But [it] 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. [Streaming services] have no power without new music."
Spotify currently offers a limited free streaming service to consumers, offering more content to those who pay a monthly subscription of either £5 or £10 a month.
This model results in tiny returns for artists however, averaging at less than 0.4p per stream making it more cost effective for new artists without an extensive back catalogue to sell CD’s and digital downloads.