Radiohead have still not decided whether to allow their new album to be streamed on Spotify. Speaking at the Wanstead Tap cafe in London on Thursday night, Brian Message – of the band’s management company, Courtyard Management – said he’s “praying every night” that lead singer Thom Yorke lets Spotify have the album, but a final decision is yet to be made.
As previously reported, Message told the audience of just 30 people that the new album would be released in June. He refused to reveal its name, but billled the album as “something that will probably make many of us go, ‘Wow!’”.
He continued: “There’s nothing out there right now that sounds anything like this. And for some people that will be a good thing and for others that probably won’t.”
However, the precise form of its release remains uncertain. “I’m looking forward to the day it does come out,” Message said. “And I hope – I really hope – it does come out on streaming services. To say that’s been answered, believe me it hasn’t, but I’m praying every night that it does.”
The news is unsurprising in some respects. Yorke has been vocal in his criticism of streaming for years, once calling Spotify “the last desperate fart of a dying corpse”. But Message insisted Yorke’s criticism was largely down to the fact streaming’s potential had yet to be realised. “There should be 200 million-plus paying subscribers [on streaming sites], but there aren’t. So when you’re stuck in the trenches and there are still under 100 million subscribers, it’s hard [to see the benefits of streaming].”
Message used much of his talk to criticise the secondary ticketing market, through which companies buy up gig tickets at normal value and sell them on at vastly inflated prices. The band have tried to stop this happening on their forthcoming European tour by limiting tickets to two per person and saying buyers must be named on tickets and supply ID when they arrive at venues. But apparently that has not stopped secondary sellers from trying to get in on the market for the shows, for which tickets sold out in minutes.
“Viagogo had people buying or repeatedly trying to get hold of tickets and they managed to get 19 across each of the three nights at the Roundhouse,” Message said. “They’ve since sold them for £1,000 each. So what’ll happen on those nights is a Viagogo employee will walk into the venue with another person pretending to be their friend.
“You can try to limit the secondary ticketing market as much as we have, but the next step is you only being able to buy one ticket per transaction. And that’d probably be a bit of a lonely, strange gig: 3,000 singles, all in the same room, all mostly men. It’d be a bit weird.”
Message, whose company, ATC, also manages Nick Cave and PJ Harvey, said his own embrace of technology was still limited. “We’ve been tap dancing around with a number of our acts with virtual reality for years, and there’s a lot of people super excited about it. Samsung are bringing out new things with it [all the time]. But I’m personally still struggling with where it’s at as a format.
“What I love about streaming is if you’re a kid, with your headphones in, it’s cool. On the bus or the tube, it ticks a load of boxes, you can go into your own world. But the concept of sitting on a bus with your fucking VR headset on? Maybe I’m just getting too old.”
Initial reports, the Guardian’s included, described Message as Radiohead’s manager. In fact, he is a partner in Courtyard Management, with Radiohead’s affairs being handled by Chris Hufford and Bryce Edge. Radiohead have stated that his quotes should not be taken as being on behalf of the group.
- This story was amended on 15 April. Brian Message is a partner in Radiohead’s management company rather than their manager.
