Atoms For Peace remove music from Spotify as Thom Yorke claims “new artists will not get paid”

Atoms For Peace have removed their music from Spotify.

Producer Nigel Godrich claims the streaming service is “bad for new music”, complaints that were backed up by Thom Yorke.

Godrich posted a number of messages on Twitter concerning the removal of Atoms For Peace’s album Amok from Spotify, explaining that he believes the system is run by the “same old industry bods trying to get a stranglehold”.

“The reason is that new artists get paid fuck all with this model. It’s an equation that just doesn’t work,” Godrich wrote. “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. Make no mistake. These are all the same old industry bods trying to get a stranglehold on the delivery system. Plus people are scared to speak up or not take part as they are told they will lose invaluable exposure if they don’t play ball. Meanwhile millions of streams gets them a few thousand dollars. Not like radio at all.”

Thom Yorke retweeted a selection of the tweets with Godrich going on to add that he thinks Spotify can be a good thing for bands with established back catalogues but simply does not benefit new artists. “Some records can be made in a laptop,” he tweeted, “but some need musician and skilled technicians. These things cost money. Pink Floyd’s catalogue has already generated billions of dollars for someone (not necessarily the band) so now putting it on a streaming site makes total sense. But if people had been listening to Spotify instead of buying records in 1973 I doubt very much if ‘Dark Side…’ would have been made. It would just be too expensive.”

Yorke also Tweeted: “Make no mistake new artists you discover on Spotify will no get paid. meanwhile shareholders will shortly being rolling in it. simples.”

As well as the removal of Amok, Godrich has also removed his band Ultraista’s debut album from Spotify while Thom Yorke’s solo album The Eraser has also been taken down from the streaming service.