28/05/2026
Thom Yorke used his speech at the 2026 Ivor Novello Awards to deliver a blunt warning to the music industry: stop treating new artists like disposable content.
"To use music and song to tell the story of what it truly means to grow up in their mode and go stylistically wherever the f**k they want, because they can. This is the pumping heart of music. This is how music stays relevant.
"For this to happen, the industry itself has to have faith in these people. They're fragile, usually kind of f**ked up like me, and they need support. And the industry needs the wisdom to allow them to develop, and be able to take risks with them and make mistakes with them. That is literally their job, in my opinion.
"I'm very aware, and so are my band, [of] how lucky we were in our formative years, thanks to our managers Brian, Chris, Bryce and Jules. They fought really hard for us guys. And weirdly, our old record company, the old school EMI, cut us a lot of slack back in the old days. It all paid off.
"We watched a lot of other artists not be so lucky, get chewed up and spat out. It takes time for artists to find their voice, to learn their craft and where it will take them. That is when the good s**t occurs.
"I worry that our business is becoming risk-averse and unable to help. It makes zero sense to me. The same is true in a lot of the creative industries: art, film, theatre – they’re all going through this weird, myopic self-destruction.
"Instead, I picked up the FT [Financial Times] and read about the exciting share price of streaming services and the insane value placed on the catalogues of a few artists of the previous generation, and the financial frenzy around them.
"That's nice for them. But it is not, as they would like to call it, investment in the music sector. Quite the opposite.
"I wonder if those people appreciate what went into the making of those records. Maybe you should read some biographies of the music you're buying and hoarding, and some of the history about that subject.
"I wonder why no one questions this insane flow of money upwards that leaves nothing but dust for new artists.
"Those heads of our industry are not asking what happens for the future generation, when the musical well dries up – which it will, guys.
"Instead, a lot of lip service is paid to new music with self-serving playlists, and to the idea of a vital music scene. But there is a refusal to offer even a semblance of a sustainable revenue source for the majority of musicians.
"And they continue the nasty f**king opaque accounting tricks that major labels were doing in the '90s.
"So I guess I'd like to provide a quick reminder to the top of the industry and streaming services: pull your finger out. Where are you gonna get your next juicy back catalogues from, eh?
"This industry will die and arseholes with it, if all you do is devalue the next generation of artists and their fans. Just remember: without us, you ain't s**t!"
