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Radiohead’s co-manager Brian Message has backed Spotify after frontman Thom Yorke pulled recent albums from the online music streaming service.
Yorke says Spotify leaves “shareholders rolling in it”, reports Music Week, and the group’s producer Nigel Godrich claims it pays new artists “f*ck all”.
However, Message says he is still confident Spotify will offer musicians "equitable remuneration".
“A whole range of managers look at new technology developments such as Spotify as a good thing," he said.
"Streaming services are a new way for artists and fans to engage. As a manager of Thom I obviously sit up and take note when he says, ‘Listen guys we need to look at how this works’. It’s a healthy debate that’s going on right now.
"The bottom line is, technology is here to stay, and evolution of technology is always going to go on. It’s up to me as a manager to work with the likes of Spotify and other streaming services to best facilitate how we monetise those [platforms] for the artists we represent. It’s not easy but it’s great to have the dialogue.”
Godrich initially sparked the debate on Sunday by announcing the debut album from his and Yorke’s band, Atoms For Peace, was being pulled off Spotify, as was Yorke’s solo LP The Eraser and Godrich’s Ultraista.
Spotify has since said it strives to be "the most artist-friendly music service possible". Godrich retaliated, claiming that major labels did “secret deals” with Spotify, to the detriment of smaller labels and new artists.
Radiohead’s In Rainbows album, launched in 2007, was sold via a controversial ‘pay what you want’ model, but doesn’t appear on streaming services today.
Other EMI Radiohead albums like The Bends and OK Computer are still available on Spotify.
