Photo by Henry Laurisch
2013 saw famed Radiohead-frontman Thom Yorke leveling intense criticism at the music-streaming platform Spotify, at one point calling it "the last desperate fart of a dying corpse," and arguing that the music industry needs to be seriously rethought so that musicians get paid properly.The Guardian reports that in a new interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Thom Yorke has now taken on a couple giants of the internet: Google, and their subsidiary, YouTube. He argues that they have "seized control" of art, comparing it to Nazi Germany did during the second world war. When asked how he would tackle the online music industry's problems, he offered:"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 went on to criticize YouTube's claims that an ad blocker which works on their site is "not fair": "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 don't get a profit out of it, it's not fair."He also stated that he "definitely doesn't use YouTube" to find new music.Follow Alexander on Twitter.