Thom Yorke: Spotify is 'the last desperate fart of a dying corpse'

Radiohead and Atoms for Peace frontman renews his attack on online music streaming service

Beach boy: Thom Yorke rocks a ‘surfer dude’ look, to front new band Atoms for Peace (EPA)

Thom Yorke has launched another attack on Spotify, calling the online music streaming service “the last desperate fart of a dying corpse”.

He told Mexcian website Sopitas that Spotify benefitted from major record labels re-selling their old albums for free to “make a fortune and not die”.

He said: “That’s why, to me, Spotify is such a massive battle. Because it’s about the future of all music, it’s about whether we believe there is a future in music. To me this isn’t mainstream, to me this is the last desperate fart of a dying corpse.”

In his new renewed attack on the online music streaming service, Yorke said Radiohead’s online giveaway of their 2007 album In Rainbows, which saw fans pay whatever they wanted, was not comparable to Spotify.

He said: “When we did In Rainbows, the most exciting thing was the idea that we could have a direct connection between musician and audience. Now, all these damn people get involved, like Spotify, who try to be gatekeepers of this whole process, when we do not need that. No artists needs it, we can do all that shit ourselves. So f*** off.”

He added: "I feel like as musicians we need to fight the Spotify thing. I feel that in some ways what's happening in the mainstream is the last gasp of the old industry. Once that does finally die, which it will, something else will happen.

"But it's all about how we change the way we listen to music, it's all about what happens next in terms of technology, in terms of how people talk to each other about music, and a lot of it could be really f***ing bad."

Yorke first publicly denounced Spotify in July, when he said on Twitter that his band Atoms for Peace had left the service. He tweeted: “Make no mistake new artists you discover on #Spotify will not get paid. Meanwhile shareholders will shortly be rolling in it. Simples.”

Spotify said at the time it had already paid $500m to rightsholders so far this year, and hopes to reach $1bn by the end of 2013.

A spokesman said: “Much of this money is being invested in nurturing new talent and producing great new music.”