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Thom Yorke: CDs kept the music industry alive like a zombie


Farin

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The Radiohead frontman has described his hatred of the CD format, saying that online distribution has placed more emphasis on songs

[smaller]Dan Martin | guardian.co.uk | Thursday 6 August 2009 | Link[/smaller]

Radiohead's Thom Yorke has commented about changes in music consumption the day after the download-only release of Harry Patch (In Memory of).

In an interview with Believer magazine, Yorke spoke about "hating" CDs, a view that supports the download-only single and initial online release of In Rainbows. Yorke goes on to say that the CD format kept the old music industry alive like a zombie.

He told Believer magazine: "Me and Stanley (Donwood, the designer) always hated CDs. Just a ******* nightmare. There's a process of natural selection going on right now. The music business was waiting to die in its current form about 20 years ago. But then, hallelujah, the CD turned up and kept it going for a bit. But basically, it was dead."

With plans for more releases like the Harry Patch song, Yorke further espoused the theory that online distribution has brought music back to a 50s song-based form. He said: "If you forget about the money issue for just a minute – if it's possible to do that, because it's people's livelihoods we're talking about – and you look at it in terms of the most amazing broadcasting network ever built, then it's completely different."

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I used to be a song-listener, now I'm more of an album-listener. I think, by listening to albums you get to know the artists better. You can look beyond the hit singles. I also enjoy my visits to the record store, looking for bargains. Therefore I hope the album format will be kept alive.

However I don't mind digital downloading up to a certain level, as long as you need to, or have great (financial) advantage to buy the entire album.

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