The Quietus - A new rock music and pop culture website

News

Radiohead Encouraged To Split
The Quietus , May 5th, 2009 06:17

Management thought it wasn't "working" before In Rainbows

Radiohead's management have revealed that they encouraged the band to split up before the release of In Rainbows.

Speaking to the Irish Times, Brian Message of Courtyard Management said, "I've been lucky to work with some great artists and Radiohead are a once in a generation act.

"But you have to be honest if it's not working. You have to have passion about what you do. I'm an accountant but I love music and I'm passionate about the artists I work with."

He also explained that, as managers, Courtyard were "out of step" with the music business in their attitude to file sharing. "We believe file-sharing by peer to peer should be legalised. The sharing of music where it is not for profit is a great thing for culture and music. Those who are providing that facility as part of their value proposition should be contributing to the artists.£

He said, though, that the state would need to step in to ensure that filesharing was monetised and artists would be properly paid. "As a free market advocate I never thought I’d say this but we will have to have government intervention to force the internet service providers to adopt a licensing model," he explained.