Taylor Swift has become the figurehead of the anti-streaming movement in the last year thanks to pulling 1989 and the rest of her discography from Spotify during 2014, but Radiohead's Thom Yorke has hated the concept longer and more deeply than anyone. Yet Stereogum (as well as the rest of the world) was shocked to find that the frontman's solo discography was ready for streaming on Apple Music.
Among the albums available for listening are his solo LPs The Eraser and Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, as well as Amok from side project Atoms For Peace (as well as Radiohead's In Rainbows).
Unlike Swift, who also has allowed her discography onto Apple for streaming, Yorke didn't give a big, social media post on the subject. Perhaps that's because it's tough to find logic strong enough to match the disgust expressed for streaming during 2013.
"We can build the sh*t ourselves, so f*ck off," he said, way-back-when. "To me this isn't the mainstream, this is is like the last fart, the last desperate fart of a dying corpse. What happens next is the important part."
Although that tirade is somewhat...out there, we can sympathize with complaints from performers such as he and Swift that streaming services don't offer high enough payouts to the performers responsible for the music.
That said...it doesn't appear that Apple Music is actually paying artists any more than its Swedish competitor. So why Swift and Yorke have jumped on Team Apple is anyone's guess. It's like voting for Kodos because you like his name better than Kang's.
Another big exclusive to the Apple Music catalogue is Dr. Dre's The Chronic...although that's because of past legal issues surrounding the album, not because the emcee/entrepreneur is against streaming.
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