Thom Yorke compares YouTube ads to Nazi art theft in latest payment gripe
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has likened Google’s YouTube music video ad revenue to the Nazi’s seizure of iconic artworks during the Second World War.
The dramatic sentiment emerged during an interview with Italian publication Republica whereupon he was asked to share how he listens to music these days.
Yorke, whose solo album retails on P2P sharing site BitTorrent, used the opportunity to take a swing at YouTube. He said that artists who have their music on YouTube “are not paid - or are paid ridiculous sums, and apparently this is fine for them”.
He then accused YouTube of trawling the net for content, offering it to consumers to free, and thus devaluing it.
In an unflattering comparison, Yorke said the content is “seized… like the Nazis did during the Second World War… What difference is there?”
He added: “They keep saying that this is an era where music is free, where cinema is free. Not true. The makers of these services make money. Google, Youtube; a huge amount of money, trawling like in the ocean, taking everything there is. ‘Oh sorry, was that yours? Now it’s ours. No, no just kidding – it’s still yours’.”
The video aggregation service is looking to move its users to paid subscriptions with its YouTube Music Key service, which launched on trial in November 2014, and remains in in beta for the time being.
With it, YouTube promised musicians: “By creating a new paid offering, we'll generate a new source of revenue that will supplement your fast growing advertising service.”