The Quietus - A new rock music and pop culture website

News

Editors Take A Pop At Radiohead
Ben Hewitt , October 7th, 2009 06:50

Release of In Rainbows was "selfish", claims Tom Smith

Editors frontman Tom Smith had a busy day yesterday as he appeared on various radio shows slagging off Radiohead.

The singer criticised the band for giving their 2007 album In Rainbows away for free, claiming it was "selfish".

First off, he appeared on BBC 6 Music, where he claimed that Radiohead's decision to give away free music directly clashed with Ed O Brien's criticisms of illegal file-sharing.

"It's a weird thing to say that but in giving it away for free, it didn't feel like it had any connection to the bigger problem and it was selfish," said Smith.

"It's like music is just background [for file-sharers], you can just grab bits and pieces rather than an album as a whole. But I think the big artists have a responsibility for the smaller artists, to speak up when things are going wrong.

"I also find it weird that they [Radiohead] gave their album away for free. I think that's in direct conflict to [taking a stance against file sharing]."

He then made an appearance on NME Radio where he insisted that although he wasn't "spearheading a campaign" against the band, he thought they had a responsibility to help smaller bands.

"All this debate… it's hard getting involved because I don't offer a solution," he said.

"I'm not saying they [Radiohead] started a problem, I'm not spearheading a campaign against them. The problem is devaluing music. Radiohead gave away their record for free… big bands have responsibility for small bands."