"Spotify is last desperate fart of a dying corpse." Discuss.

[EliasMooseblaster]

So it's hardly news that Thom Yorke has a less-than flattering view of Spotify. Apparently this is his most recent outburst on the subject:

[url="http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2013/10/spotify-is-last-desperate-fart-of-a-dying-corpse-says-thom-yorke.html#"]http://www.hypebot.c...hom-yorke.html#[/url]!

Just interested to know what people reckon on here.

Edited October 9, 2013 by EliasMooseblaster

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Haven't joined it yet.

[Dingus]

I love Spotify . I am less keen on Thom Yorke and Radiohead. I don't know what he is getting so worked up about, to be honest with you . The truth is that no one has actually listened to any of his records since O.K Computer , so I think his artistic integrity is quite safe . Maybe his earnings are not quite as secure, but the answer is in his own hands , i.e make some hit records .

[Conan]

Well, technically a corpse is already dead - so you can't have (or be) a "dying corpse"... flatulent or otherwise.

I've never used Spotify though, so can't comment on that bit.

Edited October 9, 2013 by Conan

[Dingus]

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1381318794' post='2237430']
Well, technically a corpse is already dead - so you can't have (or be) a "dying corpse"...

I've never used Spotify though, so can't comment on that bit.
[/quote]

Well spotted!

[toneknob]

There's a whole bunch of Radiohead music that I wouldn't have listened to without Spotify. I still don't like much of it though, tbh

[UglyDog]

Grrrrrrrrrr
barkbarkbarkbark
ruff
bark
howwwwwwl


(rough translation: Here’s what Frank Gambale had to say about Spotify and its ilk on facebook)…

[indent=1][i]Hi Folks,[/i][/indent]
[indent=1][i]Ok, I think you all know that I am NOT one to rant on...but today I have taken a stand, alongside some other fine Artists who have and are doing the same. My angst is toward music streaming companies such as Rhapsody ( with the emphasis on "sody"), Rdio and Spotify to name but a few. [/i][/indent]
[indent=1][i]I have instructed CD baby to remove all my catalog of music from those streaming sites.[/i][/indent]
[indent=1][i]Why? You may well ask![/i][/indent]
[indent=1][i]If we as Artists believe our music to be worthless, then Spotify and the like are GREAT places to put your music. [/i][/indent]
[indent=1][i]17,000 plays of one of my tunes on Spotify paid a whopping 15.3 cents!!! [/i][/indent]
[indent=1][i]Now, look folks, I talk to people all the time and many of them say they use Spotify. The consumers love these sites. $10 a month for a subscription, then they play and listen to whatever they want... completely oblivious to the fact that the folks running Spotify and the like are lining their pockets and paying Artists less than peanuts... because I can't afford to buy peanuts to eat if I had to rely on Spotify royalties.
Now folks, I'm not against streaming, I think it's awesome, however, I DO think that these companies need to realize where their revenue is coming from.[/i][/indent]
[indent=1][i]In my mind it's utterly pitiful and a disgraceful display of greed and once again Artists being ripped off. Folks, WE, as musicians ARE the source!! We love what we do, but let's face it, we're not a charity! Here's the facts:[/i][/indent][list]
[*][i]Rhapsody royalty rate = .0091 cents per play[/i]
[*][i]Rdio royalty rate = .0045 cents per play[/i]
[*][i]Spotify royalty rate = .0009 to ZERO ( YES ZERO!!! ) cents per play![/i]
[/list]
[indent=1][i]I rest my case folks. The regular airwave radio stations pay roughly 10 cents a play... these internet radio stations need to pay Artists an actual royalty rate that reflects RESPECT for the music, Artists and Musicians who make the music in the first place.[/i][/indent]

[PTB]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1381318770' post='2237428']
I love Spotify . I am less keen on Thom Yorke and Radiohead. I don't know what he is getting so worked up about, to be honest with you.[/quote]


+1

[BigRedX]

Sotify is just one in a line of music delivery services over the last 100 or so years. As musicians we need to find ways to make it work for us rather than working for it.

It's the consumers/listeners I feel sorry for. Right now you are sitting in front of your computers or mobile devices streaming the music from services such as Spotify. But what happens when they are gone and something different replaces it? You'll have to start all over again. And don't think that it won't, because it will and it will probably happen sooner than you can imagine.

Delivery medium has always moved on otherwise the only way to hear music would be in live performance. But then we had sheet music, vinyl, CDs, downloads and now on-line streaming. The thing is, that before on-line streaming if the producers/distributors went out of business, so long as I still have my piano/record player/CD player/computer I can still listen to the music I have bought. When services like Spotify are superseded by whatever comes next everything you've listened to will be gone.

[Dingus]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1381318861' post='2237432']
Well spotted!
[/quote]

( no pun intended)

[mep]

Spotify is great. Radiohead (or Radiodead) IMO are 5hite and not worth listening to on any format. I remember watching them perform the pyramid song on TOTP and it was a wailing waste of space.

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

As a consumer I love Spotify - £10 per month and can listen to (more or less) whatever I want whenever I feel like it.

I have also found many many bands on Spotify which I would not have been introduced to otherwise because non of my friends were into them etc...

I do have a worry about making sure the artists do get a fair deal and since they are the content creators, if they all stopped making music then Spotify would have nothing to sell so it is not in Spotify's long term interest to screw over the artists.

Maybe someone needs to create a 'Fairtrade' music streaming service so, similiar to coffee, bananas and clothing, people can have a choice to pay £10 per month to potentially money grabbing unscrupulous companies or £15 to 'Spoti-fair' where you know that the artist is being given a guaranteed x% of your subscription etc..

I guess the difference with coffee or bananas etc is that you pay £X and you know that you will be supplied with N grams of product. You might pay £10 to spotify and listen to 1 tune or 10,000 so spotify must have some kind of way of dividing up the finite £10 amongst a potentially very high number of artists.

Edited October 9, 2013 by Jonnyboy Rotten

[fretmeister]

I love the service, but the amount they pay to the artists is appalling.

Frank Gambale recently did a breakdown of his earnings from it and 17,000 plays of one of his songs earned him... 15 cents.

That's it.

0.0008 cents per play.

[krazy_olie]

I've found loads of music on Spotify, indeed made cd purchases because of it, on the other hand I've not bought cds because of it too so it works both ways, definitely gone to gigs because of it! Sounds like they pay quite poor rates.

[discreet]

I think Yorke is right. But I also subscribe to Spotify, so I'm not really sure where that leaves me.
Listening to loads of music with a niggling feeling of hypocrisy, probably.

[Horizontalste]

Surely artists have to agree if their material is on streaming sites?
I'm a premium customer and to be honest I've never really thought about royalties.

Can't see these sites disappearing anytime soon tho.

[paul h]

If I was in a band I would call it Desperate Fart.

[discreet]

[quote name='paul h' timestamp='1381322979' post='2237534']
If I was in a band I would call it Desperate Fart.
[/quote]

It would probably sound like one, too.

[6v6]

[size=4]I think spotify, from a consumer perspective is great, and one of the most exiting things to happen to music distribution in a generation - I mean the dream has become a reality, everywhere I go, I've got essentially unlimited access to whatever music I want, on my phone. It's pretty amazing IMO and I've discovered loads of new music because of it.

The Thom Yorke rant is essentially a misguided attack on the consumers, i.e. suggesting you shouldn't use spotify, when the actual issue is the fee structure for artists (which admittedly sounds like a terrible deal, but I'd love to know how many times a song had to be played on radio, or singles sold etc for comparison). The fees paid to artists is a contractual thing between the artist and the distributor (spotify in this case), I don't see how public rants really help, he'd be better lobbying other artists to gain strength for a fee renegotiation.

I actually laughed at "[color=#333333][font=Arial, sans-serif]We can build the sh*t ourselves" Oh really, so you, the recording artists, could trivially implement a global streaming platform, client applications, pricing model, secure payment system etc etc, which scales to millions of users. Yeah right! I work in this industry, and these kinds of large-scale distributed software problems are hard, and cost money to solve.[/font][/color][/size]

[color=#333333][font=Arial, sans-serif](Edit, weird font issue)[/font][/color]

Edited October 9, 2013 by 6v6

[Dingus]

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1381321892' post='2237508']
I love the service, but the amount they pay to the artists is appalling.

Frank Gambale recently did a breakdown of his earnings from it and 17,000 plays of one of his songs earned him... 15 cents.

That's it.

0.0008 cents per play.
[/quote]

To be honest , that's 15 cents that Frank Gambale might not have otherwise . Like You Tube , there are periphoral benefits for artists who are on Spotify even if the royalties are negligable . Maybe technology has progressed to the extent that artists can't realistically expect the same degree of protection by copyright and being payed for use of their work in the same way as they are used to . In reality, that is what has already happened , and you can see why artists are upset about it , but ultimately , that horse has already bolted .

Edited October 9, 2013 by Dingus

[uncle psychosis]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1381318770' post='2237428']
The truth is that no one has actually listened to any of his records since O.K Computer , so I think his artistic integrity is quite safe . Maybe his earnings are not quite as secure, but the answer is in his own hands , i.e make some hit records .
[/quote]



Are you joking?

[Dingus]

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1381323714' post='2237557']


Are you joking?
[/quote]

Yes , I'm joking . Radiohead couldn't really write another hit .

[gjones]

I can see no benefit for any artists to be on Spotify if they get no payment in return. If people want to listen to a specific artists songs for free they can go to youtube.

All the major record companies hold shares in Spotify. I have the feeling they are desperate to find a new way to distribute music that can make them money. If Spotify becomes ubiquitous and the first choice for music listeners, by keeping costs low and prices cheap, then I can see them starting to make money as more and more people sign up. Then, possibly, artists will get decent payment for their music. But until then, I can totally sympathise with thom York's point of view.

[uncle psychosis]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1381323815' post='2237562']
Yes , I'm joking . Radiohead couldn't really write another hit .
[/quote]

They don't need to. They've got to the point where they can self-finance a record and sell it directly to their fanbase. They sold something like 350,000 mp3 copies of King Of Limbs directly from their website. By cutting out the middleman they're in a much stronger financial position than they ever were.

[cheddatom]

I think it's a great service for people to listen to and find new music. It'd be nice if royalties were comparable to radio play but that's probably not going to happen. Artists need to encourage listeners to buy music and/or merch, and I think that's working for a lot of people. I know my gf has bought several albums after finding the bands on Spotify

I love Radiohead but wish he wouldn't rant on in such a manner