Thom Yorke has never been shy about his political beliefs. In fact, these inclinations have helped to inspire some of his greatest music. Now, it appears that Yorke had some harsh words for Youtube and its parent company, Google, comparing the mega-company to Nazi Germany. The rocker feels these sites have "seized control" of artistic output and have thus censored what the public can here. Yorke also feels that Spotify is unfairly curating how we listen to music and imposing its cultural hegemony upon users, judging by his words in the past.
As The Guardian reports, when asked how an artist can make a profit off his or her music in today's undervalued industry, Yorke told La Repubblica, "I don't have the solution to these problems. I only know that they're making money with the work of loads of artists who don't get any benefit from it. People continue to say that this is an era where music is free, cinema is free. It's not true. The creators of services make money - Google, YouTube. A huge amount of money, by trawling, like in the sea - they take everything there is. 'Oh, sorry, was that yours? Now it's ours. No, no, we're joking - it's still yours'. They've seized control of it - it's like what the Nazis did during the second world war. Actually, it's like what everyone was doing during the war, even the English - stealing the art of other countries. What difference is there?"
Yorke has taken issue with the advertisements at the beginning of Youtube videos. He claims it is not fair for companies to profit off artists' output while paying them meager amounts. Yorke says he has employed an ad blocking service to ensure he doesn't have to watch any Youtube advertisements. Regarding the Youtube advertisements, Yorke said, "The funny thing is that YouTube has said 'that's not fair' [to AdBlocker]," he said. "You know? They say it's not fair - the people who put adverts in front of any piece of content, making a load of money, while artists don't get paid or are paid laughable amounts - and that seems fine to them. But if [YouTube] don't get a profit out of it, it's not fair."
He also added that he uses Boomkat to discover new music, as opposed to letting Spotify or other services curate his taste.
