Friday, June 11, 2010

Thom Yorke sees grim times ahead for majors

Thom Yorke is advising young folk to steer clear of deals with big labels, reports Tim Ross in the London Evening Standard:

Yorke, 41, who made his fortune from six albums recorded with EMI, has told talented young musicians to make it on their own without the help of massive recording contracts.

He offers the pessimistic advice in a rare interview for a new school textbook in which he is asked what advice he would give teenagers who wanted to make a difference with their music.

Yorke claims the mainstream music industry is dying and that this will be “no great loss to the world” before telling aspiring musicians not to tie themselves to the “sinking ship”.

Yorke suggests it will be “only a matter of time — months rather than years — before the music business establishment completely folds”. After recording six albums with EMI, Radiohead split acrimoniously from the label when they failed to agree new terms.

Bit confused as to why Ross feels this is "pessimistic advice" - he seems to be assuming that signing your work and life and kidneys over to a badly-organised corporation which will screw you when times are good and can't work out how to operate when times are bad is a positive good.

Saying there are ways that don't involve you having to file receipts with an office in LA sounds like optimistic advice to me.


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