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Thom Yorke rebels against Spotify

Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich have started a "small meaningless rebellion" against Spotify, announcing on Twitter they're pulling their Atoms For Peace collaboration off the streaming service over royalty payments they say are paltry.

The Radiohead frontman and his influential producer-musician friend initially put Amok up on the service but decided after six months to take the unusual step of pulling it down.

Thom tweeted: "Make no mistake new artists you discover on #Spotify will no get paid. meanwhile shareholders will shortly being rolling in it. Simples."

Streaming payment models have gotten more attention as the mobile-friendly services continue to grow, taking a larger piece of the music marketplace.

At a Spotify gathering in New York last month to tout a staffing increase, Ken Parks, the company's chief content officer, said the company has already paid 500 million dollars in royalties and was scheduled to reach 1 billion dollars by the end of 2013.

The company released a statement noting, "Much of this money is being invested in nurturing new talent and producing great new music. We're 100 per cent committed to making Spotify the most artist-friendly music service possible and are constantly talking to artists and managers about how Spotify can help build their careers."

Thom and Nigel - who say the decision only applies to the Atoms album, Thom's solo record The Eraser and Nigel's Ultraista project and not the Radiohead catalogue - say they're standing up for their fellow musicians. They believe popular artists with large catalogs probably are seeing some return.

"Meanwhile small labels and new artists can't even keep their lights on. It's just not right," said Nigel.

Source: music.uk.msn.com
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