Spotify And Godrich Trade Verbal Punches Over Streaming Rebellion

Spotify have responded to serious criticisms levelled at them by Radiohead's Thom Yorke and collaborator Nigel Godrich after they pulled their Atoms For Peace record and Yorke's solo The Eraser album from the music streaming service.

They took their albums off the service to protest musicians' rights and claimed that, “The music industry is being taken over by the back door, and if we don't try and make it fair for new music producers and artists then the art will suffer.” Early this morning Spotify and Godrich have traded verbal punches over the service.

An spokesperson for Spotify's global business said, via MusicWeek, “Spotify's goal is to grow a service which people love, ultimately want to pay for, and which will provide the financial support to the music industry necessary to invest in new talent and music.

“We want to help artists connect with their fans, find new audiences, grow their fan base and make a living from the music we all love.”

Spotify added, “Right now we're still in the early stages of a long-term project that's already having a hugely positive effect on artists and new music. We've already paid US$500M to rightsholders so far and by the end of 2013 this number will reach US$1bn. Much of this money is being invested in nurturing new talent and producing great new music.

“We're 100 percent committed to making Spotify the most artist-friendly music service possible, and are constantly talking to artists and managers about how Spotify can help build their careers.”

Godrich, who has done most of the verbal jousting, responded to Spotify's response on Twitter.

“So Spotify say they have generated $500 million dollars for 'license holders'. The way that Spotify works is that the money is divided up by percentage of total streams. Big labels have massive back catalogues so their 40-year-old record by a dead artist earns them the same slice of the pie as a brand new track by a new artist. The big labels did secret deals with Spotify and the like in return for favourable royalty rates.

The big labels did secret deals with spotify and the like in return for favourable royalty rates.

— nigel godrich (@nigelgod) July 15, 2013

“The massive amount of catalogue being streamed guarantees that they get the big massive slice of the pie (that $500 million) and the smaller producers and labels get pittance for their comparatively few streams. This is what's wrong. Catalogue and new music cannot be lumped in together. The model massively favours the larger companies with big catalogues.”

He continued, “They need new the new artists to be on the system to guarantee new subscribers and lock down the 'new landscape'. This is how they figure they'll make money in the future. But the model pays pittance to the new artist right now. An inconvenient fact which will keep coming up.”

Godrich said he felt a “responsibility to speak up when I see something going on which I think is unfair. I'm not bitching about not getting paid. It's about standing up for other artists' rights. It's up to streaming providers to come back with a better way of supporting new music producers. It's not for us to think up how it could work. That's your department.”

The music world hasn't been completely supportive of the anti-Spotify stance, with fans yesterday claiming that they were the ones being punished and many pointing to Radiohead's In Rainbows album as an example the band themselves of devaluing music. The 2007 album was offered to fans in a 'pay-what-you-want' model.

Yorke said that record, “Was a statement of trust .people still value new music. That's all we'd like from Spotify. Don't make us the target.”

for me In Rainbows was a statement of trust .people still value new music ..that's all we'd like from Spotify. don't make us the target.

— Thom Yorke (@thomyorke) July 15, 2013