Thom Yorke has made his stance on Twitter - and music streaming in general - very clear over the last few months. The Radiohead and Atoms For Peace frontman has been a vocal opponent of services like Spotify, citing an unbalanced relationship between the music streaming service and the bands from which it makes its profits.
Yorke has withdrawn his Atoms For Peace and solo material from the service (though Radiohead remains) but not everyone shares his anti-Spotify stance - Moby being one.
In an interview with Mashable, Moby referred to Yorke as "an old guy yelling at trains" as part of a discussion about music and its relationship with technology. The New Yorker went on to say that he's firmly in the Spotify camp and has even lobbied Congress to stop the Recording Industry Association of America from penalizing them.
Speaking of the relationship between Spotify and Bands, Moby said: "Artists who are adaptable are doing fine. A musician who makes records, tours, DJs, remixes, does music for video games and films is doing fine. If you can learn how to adapt - it's really weird and unhealthy when people talk about restricting progress to accommodate the inability of people to adapt. Every industry has been impacted by [the advancement of technology] in both positive and negative ways, but I feel like to complain it pointless. I love Thom Yorke, but when I heard him complaining about Spotify, I'm like, 'You're just like an old guy yelling at fast trains.' I love anything that enables people to have more music in their lives."
After seeing the article Yorke tweeted: "I am a 45 yr old Luddite and proud of it.. yawn."
It's an interesting debate, this one. The traditional methods of music distribution have been completely subverted over the last few years as various forms of media (TV and film included) have moved more towards cloud-based subscription services. There's little doubt the Spotify model is here to say but will the relationship between it and the bands it become more balanced, as Thom Yorke wants? It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
to be clear, i love @thomyorke and david byrne, creative geniuses. i just don't see the point in fighting a future that's already here.
— moby (@thelittleidiot) November 26, 2013