Thom Yorke of Radiohead

Thom Yorke famously called Spotify “the last desperate fart of a dying corpse,” so it raised eyebrows when Radiohead’s back catalog arrived on the streaming platform last year and Yorke followed suit with his solo discography earlier this month. Despite these recent developments, it doesn’t appear Yorke has changed his opinion of Spotify.

This evening, Yorke cosigned a critical tweet from Portishead’s Geoff Barrow about Spotify’s compensation rates. “Ok quick question for musicians… How many of you have personally made more than £500 from Spotify?” Barrow asked. Yorke quoted Barrow’s tweet and directed his followers to read the comments he had received in response. “I refer you, ladies and gentlemen, to the comments below … without further comment,” Yorke wrote.



Of the respones received by Barrow, one was from hip-hop producer Dan Le Sac, who noted he had made £100 from 20,000 streams. “A lot more than YouTube plays but a lot less than record sales,” responded Stones Throw founder Peanut Butter Wolf. UK singer-songwriter Lone Lady replied to Barrow’s tweet by simply writing, “Nope.”

Ok quick question for musicians

How many of you have personally made more than £500 from @Spotify — Geoff Barrow (@jetfury) December 27, 2017

i refer you, ladies and gentlemen, to the comments below …. without further comment 🙏😔 https://t.co/rw3mNt9epG — Thom Yorke (@thomyorke) December 28, 2017

It’s roughly 20000 streams to pay £100 to the rights holder. Make of that what you will. — dan le sac (@danlesac) December 27, 2017

A lot more than YouTube plays but a lot less than record sales — Peanut Butter Whatever (@pbwolf) December 27, 2017

The first half of 2017 saw a 50% increase in paid streaming subscriptions, accounting for $2.5 billion of music industry’s overall $4 billion in revenue. Despite this, Spotify is still in the red, according to Jimmy Iovine.