Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is warning the music industry is on the brink of collapse, insisting young musicians should resist signing record deals because the major labels will “completely fold” within months, reports Celebrity Buzz.
The British rockers broke away from their longtime label, EMI, in 2007 and went on to embrace the new digital era with the release their seventh album, In Rainbows, which they offered up over the internet and allowed fans to choose the price.
Yorke has now issued a warning to upcoming artists, urging them not to sign traditional record deals because they would be tying themselves to “the sinking ship.”
In an interview for a new high school textbook called The Rax Active Citizen Toolkit, which aims to inspire youngsters to become more politically literate, Yorke claims the music industry is on the verge of a major crisis and could collapse completely within “months”.
He says, “It will be only a matter of time – months rather than years – before the music business establishment completely folds. (It will be) no great loss to the world.”
RBR-TVBR observation: Yes, the music industry is not doing as well as it would like to be, but to say the entire industry will fold within months is quite a stretch. Let’s face it – the new distribution model is over the internet. Consumers pay less for the songs/albums, but it is much cheaper to distribute than manufacturing CDs. Do you know anyone who isn’t downloading music onto their iPods or MP3 players? At least anyone between the ages of 3 and 75?
