# Radiohead singer claims corporate record labels (very) soon to be extinct **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 10, 2010, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634 "2010-06-10T10:10:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/1 "2010-06-10T10:10:11Z")
Radiohead singer Thom Yorke believes record labels are in a descent path to crashing and burning? Does his position have any validity? [Radiohead Frontman: Record Companies Dead Men Walking - Yorke tells new artists to steer clear of corporate labels](http://www.nbcsandiego.com/entertainment/music/Radiohead-Frontman-Warns-of-Near-Demise-for-Record-Companies-95983809.html). Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is warning the next generation of rock stars not to sign any contracts with record labels, who he says are about to become extinct. > [@](#): > > “It will be only a matter of time - months rather than years - before the music business establishment completely folds,” Yorke reportedly said. “[It will be] no great loss to the world.” > > The leader of the band behind such hits as “Creep” and “High and Dry” has offered his insight about the ever-changing music industry in an interview with new high school textbook: "The Rax Active Citizen Toolkit ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/2 "2010-06-10T10:51:22Z")
He’s really making two different arguments: that record labels are on their way out, and that the fact that they are on their way out means that new artists should steer clear. Even if you assume the first is true, I don’t think this makes dealing with them now a liability. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/3 "2010-06-10T10:55:09Z")
Why would any intelligent artist want to deal with the suits? Artists don’t need them to get their product out anymore. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/4 "2010-06-10T11:07:45Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > Why would any intelligent artist want to deal with the suits? Artists don’t need them to get their product out anymore. Listen to a popular radio station in the UK or watch a popular music channel. They aren’t airing independent artists by and large, unless they are in some way affiliated with these corporations. The playing field isn’t levelled yet, there are still gatekeepers. I can imagine the labels becoming glorified PR companies but they’re not dead yet, not by a long shot. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/5 "2010-06-10T11:42:58Z")
I know what you mean **AG** , but the potential is there to take full advantage of the best advertising of all, word of mouth. Artists might have to tour more and get a bit merchandise savvy to make ends meet, but that only precludes the greedy bastards who want to get paid for the same performance over and over again. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/6 "2010-06-10T12:02:36Z")
Only a few generations back, music was something you made, not consumed. You heard music made by locals (and the occasional visit by a professional entertainer). If you liked a piece of music, you bought the sheet music and played it yourself. A similar splintering of listeners is happening now, only it is not based on geography. We have the ability to distribute songs cheaply and easily, personal music players are ubiquitious. It is very easy to get your personal favourite music now. I believe corporate music labels wil continue to survive, because someone needs to create and distribute the prolefeed. But we are seeing greater opportunity for the independent artist than we have ever seen, because now they don’t need to sign up with a corporatio to get their work out to their audience. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/7 "2010-06-10T12:10:13Z")
The Rax Active Citizen Toolkit is a high school textbook? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/8 "2010-06-10T12:15:29Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > I know what you mean **AG** , but the potential is there to take full advantage of the best advertising of all, word of mouth. Word of mouth only works effectively in conjunction with media exposure, PR, advertising. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/9 "2010-06-10T12:33:15Z")
The record companies are doing just fine. They’ve found new income streams (notably live shows, which used to be a loss leader) but if you look at what music is selling well, you’ll see it’s all on major record company labels. Even “independent” artists look to get a record company to handle promotion. Look at the current [iTunes top ten singles](http://www.apple.com/euro/itunes/charts/top10songs.html) – all from major labels. What is happening is more fragmentation, which means fewer artists can make money from their music, which means both fewer successful artists and more crappy and homogenized music. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/10 "2010-06-10T13:29:16Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > Why would any intelligent artist want to deal with the suits? Artists don’t need them to get their product out anymore. This sort of attitude represents a somewhat naive view of the music industry IMHO. It may be easy to get your product out there on social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook or even the Apple iTunes store, but who is going to find it in the noise of a million other jam bands, indie rockers, adult alternative singer/songwriters and hip hop mcs? There is still a business need for marketing an artists music to radio stations, MP3 download sites, large concert venues and yes, even CDs, at least until those artists establish thier fan base beyond their local following of bars, frat houses and friends backyard barbeques. The reason an intelligent artist deals with “the suits” is because for every Lady Gaga, there are a thousand Stephanie Germanottas playing some Lower East Side bar in obscurity. IMHO, Thom Yorke has the entitled oppinion of a moderately successful artist who now believes all his success is the result of his own efforts. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/11 "2010-06-10T14:32:55Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Word of mouth only works effectively in conjunction with media exposure, PR, advertising. I disagree, and I believe this is the exact opposite of the truth. Word of mouth (WOM) is the best kind of advertising, the only kind that really works in anything beyond the short term, and the only kind a business or an artist really needs. I’ve run my business very successfully for the past 12 years, and I’ve sold about 20-25 thousand copies of my own book all over the world. I have never spent a single penny on advertising or with a publisher, and I doubt I ever will. My business model is very simple: write something that has value, write it well and sell it online. To start the ball rolling, send out comp copies to about 50 ‘sneezers’ (Malcolm Gladwell’s term for people who are in a position to influence lots of other opinions). Then let the quality of my work and WOM do the rest. For all but the very biggest companies and biggest players, paid above-the-line advertising is more or less a complete waste of time and money. There are many much more effective ways to market a product and spread the word. Indeed, I would say paid advertising is a particularly pathetic and inefficient way of trying to do this. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/12 "2010-06-10T14:55:08Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > It may be easy to get your product out there on social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook or even the Apple iTunes store, but who is going to find it in the noise of a million other jam bands, indie rockers, adult alternative singer/songwriters and hip hop mcs? Some will, and if they’ll tell their friends,plus sites like Pandora, internet radios, web 2.0 social networking etc. > [@](#): > > There is still a business need for marketing an artists music to radio stations which kind? The radio wave kind around here are complete garbage. Watered down shit. Your choice of ass-rock from the 80-90s, today’s ass-rock, or over 9 thousand country stations. There is 1 alternative rock station but it seldom comes in. > [@](#): > > MP3 download sites because paying greedy suites that add nothing to the music is fair superior to a basic search interface that sorts music by genera, popularity, style etc. Can’t have people exploring music without corporate middleman profit margins in mind, and soulless money whore suits deciding what’s good for us. > [@](#): > > IMHO, Thom Yorke has the entitled oppinion of a moderately successful artist who now believes all his success is the result of his own efforts. Or maybe someone who’s experienced an RIAA screwing, and wishes to warn others. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/13 "2010-06-10T14:55:56Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Word of mouth only works effectively in conjunction with media exposure, PR, advertising. I disagree, and I believe this is the exact opposite of the truth. Word of mouth (WOM) is the best kind of advertising, the only kind that really works in anything beyond the short term, and the only kind a business or an artist really needs. I’ve run my business very successfully for the past 12 years, and I’ve sold about 20-25 thousand copies of my own book all over the world. I have never spent a single penny on advertising or with a publisher, and I doubt I ever will. My business model is very simple: write something that has value, write it well and sell it online. To start the ball rolling, send out comp copies to about 50 ‘sneezers’ (Malcolm Gladwell’s term for people who are in a position to influence lots of other opinions). Then let the quality of my work and WOM do the rest. For all but the very biggest companies and biggest players, paid above-the-line advertising is more or less a complete waste of time and money. There are many much more effective ways to market a product and spread the word. Indeed, I would say paid advertising is a particularly pathetic and inefficient way of trying to do this. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8797f3/32.png) [@The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Universe_Lashes_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/14 "2010-06-10T15:33:57Z")
If you want to be the next Lady Gaga, yeah, you probably do need a record company. If you want to be the next Radiohead, it’s not at all necessary any more. Just make an album as amazing as OK Computer and people will find you. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/15 "2010-06-10T18:28:45Z")
I agree that the music industry is mid-revolution; I’m not sure they’re going to go away, though. I listen to and buy lots of current music; my sources are Dave Letterman, Craig Ferguson, and Dopers. Major labels and their advertising have almost no effect on me; I don’t listen to radio at all because of the commercials and the constant repetition, and when I occasionally check out a Top 10 show on tv, it’s the worst, most boring crap available, over and over again. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/16 "2010-06-10T18:34:39Z")
> [@HowieReynolds](#): > > If you want to be the next Lady Gaga, yeah, you probably do need a record company. If you want to be the next Radiohead, it’s not at all necessary any more. Just make an album as amazing as OK Computer and people will find you. Sometimes. Unfortunately, 99.99999% of all independent artists, no matter how amazing they are, go completely ignored. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/17 "2010-06-10T18:48:12Z")
The odd thing to me is that even though the Internet totally changes the channels of distribution, popular music seems to be becoming even more generic than before. The most popular songs are simple repetitions of one or two lines backed by a drum machine. Teenagers, who have always been the primary consumers of new music, seem to value shared experiences more than satisfying their personal tastes. It’s not that any of these trends are new, just that the new world order that I thought would work against them actually seems to be reinforcing them. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/18 "2010-06-10T18:57:36Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > He’s really making two different arguments: that record labels are on their way out, and that the fact that they are on their way out means that new artists should steer clear. Even if you assume the first is true, I don’t think this makes dealing with them now a liability. Not necessarily. I can’t even think about how many albums from various artists that I’ve seen unavailable on various music-for-purchase sites for no apparent reason other than licensing issues - if all but one album, from a different company, is up for purchase then that seems pretty likely. New artists may not want to risk tying up their work with various distribution limitations. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/19 "2010-06-10T19:03:41Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > Why would any intelligent artist want to deal with the suits? Artists don’t need them to get their product out anymore. The ‘suits’ deal with a bunch of stuff that I don’t want to deal with. (Mechanical Rights, synchronization rights, getting scores from the publishers - it is a very different business for someone who writes and performs all his own music himself. When your living is based on performing other people’s music, it doesn’t work out as easily…) It’s not whether I need them or not, it’s a question of whether they provide a service that is worth a slice of what I make as an artist. Every artists’ mileage is going to vary on that one. I’ll put it this way - when we were renovating our house, we had budgeted that we would do our own painting. When it became necessary to prime and paint 3 floors worth ASAP, I didn’t have the time to do it all and so, we hired someone in. I was a little grumpy about it for about 2 days, and then it sunk in - his work was neater than mine, he was faster than I was and I now had enough time to learn the shows I was working on. So, yes, I could do all the work the ‘suits’ do myself - except that they do it better, quicker and more efficiently, and I can spend my time working on my music. What’s that worth to me? 10% of the profits? 5%? 15%? 50%? Well, that’s up to me to decide. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634/20 "2010-06-11T02:03:24Z")
> [@ianzin](#): > > I disagree, and I believe this is the exact opposite of the truth. Word of mouth (WOM) is the best kind of advertising, the only kind that really works in anything beyond the short term, and the only kind a business or an artist really needs. We’ll have to agree to disagree, successful (music) acts require PR companies and all the other apparatus. You won’t find a household name, music-wise, that isn’t on a major label or somehow otherwise affiliated with same. I’m not saying that artists can’t survive without the help of major labels, PR etc. just that successful acts in the sense of people other than fanatics having heard of them, rely on all of the above mentioned channels plus word of mouth to succeed. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radiohead-singer-claims-corporate-record-labels-very-soon-to-be-extinct/542634.md?page=2)