Thom Yorke on the internets

It's lovely of Thom Yorke to to release a new record, but the format is a little odd.

Bittorrent bundles? That feels no less hipster-friendly embrace of a shall-we-say-specialised technology than Cassette Store Day.

This was supposed to be the year that BitTorrent Bundles went mainstream, but - although there's some interesting things going on there - the platform still feels very much like a small pool, albeit one that now has a killer whale languishing there. The Yorke album is probably the one chance Bundles has to break through and become a mass product, although there's two challenges here.

The first is whether enough people care about Yorke's solo work to go to the trouble of installing the software and getting past their nerves about things they may have heard about torrenting. It's not entirely clear that Yorke has that heft.

Secondly, even if people do embrace the idea of torrents-you-pay-for, it's going to always be a hard sell to the major labels, who might not unreasonably think that encouraging the take-up and normalisation of torrenting might encourage experimentation beyond the licenced part of the service. Viewed from Sony HQ, selling records through Bittorrent might seem a bit like suggesting that drug dealers also carry aspirin and Calpol - you can see the advantages, but the risks might outweigh them.

Thom Yorke challenged over consistency

Thom Yorke, as we all know, despises Spotify. Not quite enough to pull Radiohead music from the service, but certainly enough to keep his less-lucrative side projects away from it.

Writing on Hypebot, though, Eliot Van Buskirk points out an even odder inconsistency in Yorke's position:

Do you know which on-demand services pays less than Spotify per stream, and doesn’t even include a premium version for people who might be willing to pay (although there have been weird rumblings about that)?

YouTube. And Thom Yorke’s Atoms for Peace music is all over that on-demand music service, including in the above video, which includes the entire Atoms For Peace album. XL Recordings, Atoms for Peace’s label, has official versions up there as well.

The last time we ran the calculations, the musical force of nature Psy (remember him?) made about a third of a cent per view from his monetized music on YouTube.
[...]
one recent estimate put Spotify payouts to one artist at .4 cents per song.

In other words, regardless of who owns it, Spotify pays out more than YouTube. The two numbers are closer than one might imagine, considering that over six million people pay for Spotify, and nobody pays for YouTube, but there they are.

Curious.

Thom knocks off Spotify

Thom Yorke has pulled his music from Spotify.

Relax, it's only the solo stuff and Atoms For Peace at the moment.

Why has Thom done this?

Yorke pitched in to the debate. "Make no mistake, new artists you discover on Spotify will not get paid. Meanwhile shareholders will shortly be rolling in it. Simples," he tweeted, and added as a riposte to critics that the suggestion his move was pointless missed its purpose: "'Your small meaningless rebellion is only hurting your fans ... a drop in the bucket really.' No, we're standing up for our fellow musicians."

This set-up - musicians working hard for peanuts while shareholders cream off the cash - is a totally unheard-of situation in modern music, sweeping away, as it does, the previous arrangement whereby the major labels were run as charities and bold, experimental music cascaded onto the shelves of HMV. Back in the past, the labels looked after musicians and made sure that any singer or drummer able to afford to hire a good lawyer five years in could renegotiate the initial deal in which they'd signed away everything for something close to nothing and make enough to eat at least twice a week.

It's true that you won't make much from a handful of listens on Spotify. But is there a better way for new music to be discovered?

Nigel Godrich, Yorke's producer, has an idea:

"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."

Really? This is such a schoolboy error that I can barely even look at it without feeling awful for Godrich.

He's suggesting that this is a thought process that would happen:
- I fancy listening to music. Shall I go to the service that has all the music I've enjoyed all my life, or shall I go and listen to that service that has no songs I've ever heard before?

Some people will do the latter; but they're probably the people who would be off looking for new music everywhere anyway.

What Godrich is suggesting is akin to, say, HMV only stocking records that are year old, and another shop stocking new music only.

But even the most aloof of indie stores knew they had to have some Rolling Stones or Bob Marley in the racks, if only to tempt people over the doorstep in order to ram Chvrches into their hands.

There have been numerous attempts to build new music sites on the internet - many were just as cynically motivated by 'cheap' non-major music as Spotify are motivated by paying light royalties. I think it's fair to say that none have had any real breakthrough.

Yorke is right, up to a point - you won't get rich off Spotify. You might, if you're lucky, add a few pennies to your income.

And an artist like Yorke can afford to turn his back on Spotify without disappearing.

But if you're starting out, I'd think long and hard before getting off the high street.

Thom Yorke, at the moment

Thom Yorke is on the Rainbow Warrior, heading up the Thames. Keep an eye on @GreenpeaceUK to find out why.

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.

Downladable: New Yorke

From You Ain't No Picasso, four new songs by Thom Yorke, performed in LA.

Streaming: Thom Yorke

The good people over at Stereogum are streaming Thom Yorke's cover of Miracle Legion's All For The Best.

The track is part of the Mark Mulcahy covers album, Ciao My Shining Star.

Noel warns Thom against being stuck

To be fair to Noel Gallagher, there is a degree of truth in his claim that Radiohead might be stuck in something of a rut:

"The biggest criticism that the music press have against us [Oasis] is that we're not Radiohead," Gallagher said.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, they've been making the same record since 'Kid A', have they not?"

But is it really the biggest criticism of Oasis that they're not Radiohead? Isn't it more common that people complain that the problem with Oasis is that they're Oasis? And even if Radiohead have spent the last ten years remaking the same record, does that really excuse Oasis spending two decades making and remaking someone else's records? It's hard to choose... Thom... Noel... Thom...
... sherry... Noel... schooner of sherry?

Bookmarks: Some stuff to read on the internet

Wired's Listening Post gathers some of the many covers of MIA's Paper Planes:

Late last year, I called it "the best use of a Clash sample I've ever heard." In 2008, Thom York played it on the BBC and many artists have found it necessary to bust out some impressive cover versions and remixes. I'm from Barcelona even used the same name for one of their songs, as if some of the song's powerful mojo might rub off on them as a result.

Thom Yorke: unforgivably rude

Poor old Ronan Keating has been bitterly upset by a frosty shoulder from Thom Yorke. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now:

"Thom Yorke from Radiohead was pretty rude. We were at the same hotel in Dublin and I went over to say hello as I'm a big Radiohead fan, and he just blanked me.

"I still love the music – he's just an idiot."

Of course, we only have one side of this story, and then not even a full side - did Keating introduce himself, or just assume that Yorke would recognise him? If Keating is such a fan (and it's hard to imagine how he could be; it's like picturing Bernard Matthews claiming to be a devotee of a vegan chef) perhaps he'd have been aware that Yorke is pretty shy and might find the approach of a despoiler of music hard to deal with?

Yes, yes, politeness costs nothing, and it doesn't reflect well on Yorke that he couldn't at least grunt something encouraging back at Keating - "I've read some great slash fiction featuring you", perhaps, or "Your mate seemed alright when he was in Coronation Street" - but it's akin to James Morrison's complaints about Madonna the other week: you'd have thought people who get it themselves would understand that there are times you might not appreciate having your personal space invaded by a well-meaning idiot demanding your attention.

Something new from Radiohead

We realise that probably every website, blog and game-and-watch is already featuring this, but just in case:



Radiohead, unveiling a new song Super Colider, live in Dublin last night.

Bookmarks: Some stuff to read on the internet

The Word talks to Thom Yorke about Radiohead's departure from EMI:

How did Yorke feel about being briefed against as if he and his management were rival CEOs?

"It fucking pissed me off," he snaps. "We could have taken them to court. The idea that we were after so much money as stretching the truth to breaking point. That was his PR company briefing against us and I'll tell you what, it fucking ruined my Christmas. I was so angry, I decided I'd go for a walk, come home, write something on Dead Air Space [Radiohead's blog] and that would be it, it's over, the end. There was a certain satisfaction in knowing that I could redress it on our own website, but it was a clear indication that the relationship was over."

Yorke: We won't do that again

Thom Yorke has decided, on reflection, it might be a good idea to not let people take albums for free in the future:

"It was a one-off in terms of a story. It was one of those things where we were in the position of everyone asking us what we were going to do. I don't think it would have the same significance now anyway, if we chose to give something away again. It was a moment in time."

Apart from anything, that any free album promotion online is now referred to as "doing a Radiohead", the prospect of "Radiohead do a Radiohead" headlines must create a risk of the universe crashing into itself and ripping open portals to other dimensions, like when Dawn's blood splashed in the wrong place.

Thom Yorke dons the green eye-shield

Today's Observer magazine has been guest-edited by Thom Yorke; it's a climate change special and in his introduction he suggests that his larger-than-average global footprint is a help, rather than a hindrance, in spreading the message:

At first I told Friends of the Earth that I was absolutely the wrong person to be associated with their campaign. I've based my life on touring and the rock industry is a high energy-consuming industry. But they persuaded me that that was exactly why it was a good idea for me to be involved, that they didn't want to present a holier-than-thou message.

That's true - and makes a certain degree of sense - although how far would you take that? There's a sense that this is the environmental equivalent of those times when Keith Richards tells pop stars to not take drugs, isn't it?

But, for a whiskey priest, Yorke is pretty passionate and takes well to his brief - interviewing Ken Livingstone about plans to bring bike rental to central London, for example. Sadly, he doesn't get his hands dirty with testing alternatives to bin liners.

GlastOn the buses

As we suggested yesterday, Thom Yorke's complaints about public transport links to Glastonbury were a little unfair.

Glastonbury's press office have also said that it wasn't fair:

“[We’re] not sure what Thom is on about specifically, but there have always been extra trains put on for the festival, which arrive at the local Castle Cary train station.

“From there there's a free shuttle bus service to the festival site. There are also special bus services from all the local towns.

“Last year, in order to cut down on the number of cars, we issued 25,000 tickets linked directly to coach travel from all the UK's major towns; this reduced the number of cars by about 7,000.”

The suggestion that each car that turned up at Glastonbury contained an average of three and a half people seems a little unlikely from where we're sitting - especially with the way tickets were sold as pairs and not bunches of four - but that would suggest more, not fewer, cars off the road.

Bussed off: Radiohead rule out Glastonbury

Radiohead's decision to not play Glastonbury is, apparently, due to the lack of decent bus services, says Thom Yorke:

"[We're] trying to [...] only play in areas that have a public transport infrastructure in place.

“So that rules out Glastonbury for this year. Maybe we can work out a plan for the future. They’re probably sick of the sight of us anyway.”

To be fair to Glastonbury, they've always been pretty good with bringing people to the venue by public transport - even as far away as Birmingham New Street on the Thursday you can see the influence of the festival on Britain's transport network; back before buying a ticket became a military operation, you'd be able to pick up an entry pass from the Badgerline Coach people in Bristol. Things have probably changed now, somewhat, what with tickets costing about the same as a small car.

Dave Cameron does a Thom Yorke

The new Tory party is, indeed, a broad church, magpie-ing away policies from all over the place.

In today's The Times, for example, Dave Cameron steals one of Thom Yorke's ideas:

Radiohead are one of my favourite bands. But it's more than their music that I've found inspiring. In October last year, Radiohead released their latest album, In Rainbows, online - but that wasn't the only innovation. They invited their fans to download the album for whatever price they wanted to pay. Many people thought they were mad. But Thom Yorke, the band's lead singer, has since revealed that the digital income from In Rainbows has surpassed that of all their previous albums put together.

Do you see where this is going yet?

Well, he may not appreciate me for saying this, but I'm afraid that Radiohead's innovation has become a model for something else: for the Conservative Party's new effort, launched today, to reform the funding of political parties and engage more people - particularly young people - in politics.

Yes, Dave is introducing a new membership scheme - sorry, "Friends" scheme (they are, after all, going for the MySpace kids) - with a pricing model ripped off from In Rainbows:

We want to reinvigorate politics by giving people new ways of supporting our party. And, vitally, I see this as a way of broadening our funding base. That's where Radiohead come in. Like them, we're not specifying how much people need to donate to become a Friend of the Conservatives: you can donate as much or little as you like.

'Freinds', then, will be able to get what they need from being associated with the Tories without full membership.

You pay what you can, you get what you need.

Or, to put it another way: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

Hang on - that wasn't Thom Yorke, was it?

Thom Yorke doesn't like computer users

Despite using computers to flog In Rainbows to the masses, Thom Yorke doesn't really like people on the internet:

“I don't want that. It lays bare the isolation of many internet users, who've got too much time on their hands. Sad. I prefer expressing myself in the real world.”

... he announced by posting a message on the board in the centre of the town in Animal Crossing.

There has to be limits, warn Radiohead

After having had a 2007 full of good press following the 'pay nothing if you like' pricing of In Rainbows, Radiohead are heading into 2008 having to defend some eyewatering ticket prices for next year's gigs:

The band’s manager Bryce Edge has claimed the £42.50 per ticket for the series of dates in May simply ensures the band do not lose money for putting on the “quality shows”.

He says, “We don't want to go on tour and lose money. It is expensive to put on the quality show people expect. It is a comparable price to artists of a similar stature."

This, of course, is the flipside of the shift from records to live being the place where artists make money. Perhaps Radiohead could offer a slew of different qualities of show - a Value One where Thom doesn't change his shirt beforehand and the venue only serves warm beer for a tenner?

Radiohead, Prince frozen out of Brits

We're sure Thom Yorke and Prince will be sobbing their hearts out at the discovery that they've been ruled ineligible for the chance to shake Sharon Osbourne's hand at the Brit Awards.

Radiohead's In Rainbows can't be entered for the prizes because it didn't qualify for the charts; Prince is barred because his album just wasn't any good. Oh, and it also missed out on chart qualification because it was given away by the Mail On Sunday.