Radiohead annoyed at EMI Greatest Hits
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Radiohead have told The Word magazine of their anger at EMI's decision to release a Greatest Hits album (older news) against their wishes.
Now signed to XL following their departure from the label that released all their albums bar their latest, In Rainbows, the band's Thom Yorke said of EMI's forthcoming release: "We haven't really had any hits so what exactly is the purpose?"
The singer continued:
"There's nothing we can do about it. The work is really public property now anyway, in my head at least. It's a wasted opportunity in that if we'd been behind it, and we wanted to do it, then it might have been good."
Yorke also criticised comments from EMI, suggesting Radiohead had asked for £10 million to re-sign with the label: "The idea what we were after so much money as to stretching the truth to breaking point... it was a clear indication that the relationship was over."
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Tweet This
Share on FacebookIs it not called The Best Of though?
I'll just get the DVD.
I think it is...
...and it's two discs innit.
Hence the non-italics of 'Greatest Hits'.
It'll still sell like a bastard
How's about a double disk B-sides comp?
If they're so 'annoyed'
at their old labels release of a cash -in 'best of' that why don't they do something like donate the royalties they'll get from it's release to a charity or something? Not saying they should do that - but rather than carp on about it... oh fuck I don't even care what they do:)
Check your local record fair
I picked up a 40-track double B-sides of songs clearly culled from the internet from a record fair for about £3. It was pretty hit and miss.
Calling bullshit
If Radiohead aren't happy about this then perhaps they shouldn't have signed away their rights to the songs? I'm so sick of bands complaining about this kind of thing after taking all the benefits of the corporate record deals.
Anyway, they are easily one of the greediest bands in the country today, a proper bunch of businessmen, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if they really had asked for £10m. After scamming fans on the new album with 160kbps mp3s, then trying to scam people into remixing their single, they have little sympathy from me. They're a great bunch of musicians but they have no sympathy from me, and they can piss off for trying to milk their fans so frequently and so cynically.
Hahah what the fuck
how does the fact the the MP3s weren't of the highest quality (although they sounded absolutely fine to me..) mean that Radiohead were trying to rip people off, when said MP3s were offered for the price of 50 pence?
.
the giving away/honesty box policy was just a way of getting a little chunk of money out of the people who would have just dowloaded it anyway(and then to insult those who choose to pay they offer sub quality mp3s), they bleed their harcore fans dry with the disc box thing, then they release normal cd. It was cynical three pronged campaign to get as much money as possible.
imagine how much
people would be bitching if the normal cd never came out. it was always obvious it would if you were paying attention. it's become a bit of a myth that it wasn't, but i was there a couple of hours after it announced and saw the 'will be available in this format FOR NOW'... it was officially clarified within a day or so... jeez.
hardcore fans don't tend to moan about deluxe sets with extra songs and vinyl and huge artwork etc etc. it was fairly priced for what it was- maybe a little over if you lived in the uk 'cos the cost included free delivery anywhere in the world, but if you lived in south america or something you were sorted. i was very happy with it, except for the little plastic knobs that hold the cds.
the mp3 moaning is a bit indulgent. the fact is those mp3s were perfectly listenable and of a quality that people had traditionally paid proper money for on itunes etc. whether it was the sourcing or the production or what, it sounded better than any leak i've ever downloaded. it has everything that is on the cd. if they'd been flacs or whatever a small minority of audiophiles wanted then the online distribution would have fucked up, like it did for Nine Inch Nails weeks later, and people would be bitching about THAT to this day.
realistically it was a three pronged experiment to get material out to three distinct kinds of consumers and not get ripped off. you can probably feel annoyed if you paid a decent amount of money for the download and still felt compelled to buy the cd, but who actually did that? and who had a gun to
your head?
i'm tired of cynicism masquerading as intelligence when they did such a empowering, exciting thing and basically GAVE A FREE ALBUM TO HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE in the process. seriously. go and bitch about the real cynical businessmen in the world, such as EMI and their psuedo the-only-Radiohead-product-you-ever-have-to-buy 'best of'.
radiohead
to me have always come across as a really cynical band, their appropriation of other types of music, their short lived affiliation with political movements (no logo tent tour to V festival!?!), then this big publicity stunt, I think they lack geniune passion for anything and just always want to be seen as the most credible band around
Well
If they are so bitter about it, why don't they just fuck EMI over by releasing the compilation for free on their website?
yeah
i bet when they started writing jazz and electronica informed stuff they were really thinking with their wallets. 'oh man, the kids are gonna love this ambient bit! oh and let's chuck in some free jazz for the guys at drowned in sound, we're gonna get the best review ever!'
Christ there are some
bitter people out there.
Does their success and critical acclaim irk you nobodies so much?
Its not about mp3s etc, its about the music. And Radiohead's output is the most skillfully crafted music going around.
And Carzy, they can't release it for free because EMI has the marketing rights. Duh!
that idea's unsound
makes little sense/is crap
that idea's unsound
makes little sense/is crap
You Simply CANNOT Argue...
... With that. Case closed.
im having a mucical moral dilema
bout getting this, should i? shouldnt it? or just i maybe get worked up over something more important????
they want to have it both ways
they have always seemed embarrassed by the fact they were a major label rock band and were desperate to appear credible, I just dont think they have a genuine passion for anything they do and are overly concerned with how they are percieved
Nothing good since OK Computer
kthxbai
OK computer was good?!!
I kid, my favourite song of theirs is still talk show host which didn't even make it onto an album...
I think that EMI (pre-takeover) did a wonderful job in taking a quite off centre band and putting them through the same mechanisms that they had for Robbie Williams et al and making them a big band but also managing to keep them as a big band despite two-three albums that seriously lacked a solid tune. The record buying public is SO fickle that if it wasn't for the label continuously pushing, they would have been written off and dropped years ago and In Rainbows would have sold as many as the last Marillion album. They should graciously accept the career they've been handed and move on, and a "best of..." comp is a fine way of doing that - though they should have got involved if they were worried about the label's motives....
^ agree Alex
OK Computer was the last good album. I have to say whatever anyone thinks of them I like the fact they are helping to redefine the artist listener relationship and how people consume music. If I was Thom Yorke and co with my mansions, fast cars, etc - I would do whatever the hell I pleased too!
you know
you can not like their stuff without pretending you can read their minds...
all the bitching
about 160kb MP3s being 'sub-standard' is hilarious. Nobody bitched about 128k MP3s when they first came out. But now, since memory got a lot cheaper and smaller and everyone's got more gigabytes than hairs on their heads, suddenly everyone has become an audiophile!
What is WRONG with you people?
I can't believe you lot are standing up for EMI over Radiohead??!! What is your goddam problem?? Here is a band who genuinely have something to say and are one of the few bands left who use their position to comment on society. Not only are they a f@ckin good band, they also actually have brains, unlike most of the loser money-making vessels that you lot probably have piles of in your record collections.
It's so sad that the punk days, the John Lennon madness, the political rebellion of the CJB in 1994 (thanks to Senser, the Levellers, Planet Dog etc...) have all been homogenised by the giant corporations promoting music as nothing more than a product or f@ckin fashion accessories. Bands shoudl be ARTISTS, and not the bloody money-making puppets that we have so much of nowadays - Scouting For Girls, The Feeling, Winehouse,Adele, Hoosiers... the list goes on and on... what the hell do they stand for?? NOTHING!! are they passionate artists!? NO!! They just wanty fame and money, and that is how the industry likes 'em.
If you have any passion for keeping the ART in music, you should NOT be criticising Radiohead for at least having a bit of personality. Come on.
I suppose you'll be complaining that the new Nine Inch Nails album 'din't work in my iTunes' waaaah... you people make me sick.
hmmmm
but by being with EMI for the majority of their careers the band have made their target audience as exactly the type of people you are slagging off (three album a year from sainsburys V festival goers), they're in it to get rich and when it comes down to it this move stinks of toys being thrown out of prams, "waaaah we don't get everything our own way waaaah", and considering EMI most likely have connections to arms manufacturers/supranationals somewhere on their investors list the band had little or no right to 'comment on society' (a very similar situation to REM in fact). It appears that the label worked very hard to get their artists to the top and invested heavily in them and in return the band seemed to have made them a lot of money back and for themselves. So in effect, a seemingly perfect marriage of art and commerce which has only suffered since the label was taken over by a hedge fund who demanded a bigger share of profits... it's very naieve to think a band at their level aren't cash grabbing whores who would turn down £2m to sing Creep at an oil baron's bar mitzvah... else they'd be back playing tiny beach festivals in devon with senser, levellers, ozric tentacles, and all those losers of yesteryear.
this idea that
Thom Yorke can't express his bemusement at what his old record label (who he LEFT for a reason) do with his music is pretty fucking sinister oppressive bollocks. that's all he did and when you call it throwing toys out of prams... what is this, he can't express the smallest concern? shut up for the rest of your life because you wanted a record deal in the early nineties? don't comment on society because you don't have the 'right'... because you wanted to be heard? who's the real enemy here, where are such attitudes taking us?
they may have something to say but they are hypocrits
I think effrim black emperor put it best "the fact remains, radiohead are owned, part and parcel, by a gigantic multinational corporation, and their critique of global corporatism is tainted by that one harsh reality.."
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