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Spotify Radiohead Thom Yorke

The Eurythmics' Dave Stewart says that musicians should 'worship' Spotify

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By Stephen Lepitak, -

September 29, 2013 | 2 min read

The Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart has said that Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich were wrong to criticise Spotify and stated that, in fact, musicians “should worship” the service instead.

The Guardian reports that Stewart has reviewed his stance on the music streaming service, which he condemned during an interview in 2012 with Stuff magazine for the low revenue it fed back to artists, stating that they would make more from selling their albums at car boot sales.

“Spotify is one of the few companies that is transparent and actually pays properly – as a songwriter you should worship Spotify, because they've come along with a solution,” he explained, having stated that Yorke and Godrich had “made a mistake” for their own condemnation of the platform.

Stewart reportedly claimed that Spotify’s problems lay in its low subscription numbers of around 6 million.

"If they had 100 million subscribers, which is possible, the payment would be equal to the band's income back at the peak of selling," he explained.

Stewart later cited the emergence of online streaming sites that do not pay artists his income from music having decreased by 92 per cent in the last decade.

Yorke criticised Spotify in July this year, claiming that it barely paid new artists, while Godrich claimed that the service was only suitable for established artists’ back catalogues.

Spotify responded by claiming it would have paid out $1bn to rightsholders by the end of 2013, and said that much of that money would be invested in new talent and new music.

Spotify Radiohead Thom Yorke

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