Yorke Predicts Short Future For Labels

Yorke made the remarks during a February interview for the Rax Active Citizenship Toolkit, scheduled to be published next month by New Internationalist magazine for students of GCSE Citizen Studies, according to the BBC.

“So when the corporate industry dies it will be no great loss to the world,” Yorke said. “So, I guess I would say, don’t tie yourself to the sinking ship because, believe me, it’s sinking.”

Yorke has plenty of experience with labels. Radiohead was on EMI for 12 years before the band decided to release its In Rainbows album via its website in 2007, the same year the label was acquired by private equity firm Terra Firma.

Yorke isn’t the only Radiohead member seeing a not-so-rosy future for record labels and the music industry as we know it. While being interviewed he mentioned bandmate and Featured Artists Coalition member Ed O’Brien’s “obsession” with the future of new artists.

“When we discuss it, he says it’s simply a matter of time – months rather than years – before the music business establishment completely folds,” Yorke said. “He is involved in trying to build a world where artists would finally get paid. But we are up against the self-protecting interests of that industry.”

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