Radiohead transfer back catalogue rights to XL

Radiohead have transferred the rights to their back catalogue from Parlophone to XL Recordings, which has resulted in some of their B-sides and non-album material being removed from streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music.

A number of the band’s albums such as ‘The Bends’ and ‘OK Computer’ were streaming in their “Special Collectors Edition” form, but now these deluxe editions have been replaced with basic versions.

This has led to cuts such as ‘Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong’, ‘The Trickster’, ‘Palo Alto’ and ‘How I Made My Millions’ no longer being available to stream. An Apple Music playlist titled 'Radiohead: 90's B-Sides' was whittled down to only two tracks.

‘In Rainbows’, which came out through XL initially, has never been streamable.

A Spotify representative has spoken to Pitchfork, stating: "As a result of a change in rights ownership of Radiohead's catalogue, the band’s catalog on Spotify has been streamlined, meaning that a small number of products are no longer available. However, the band’s core album catalog remains available to their millions of fans on Spotify as before."

Hope that the B-sides may return to streaming services has been provided by an XL spokesperson who has revealed that: "This is the first step in the transfer of Radiohead's back catalogue from Parlophone to XL. The main albums are being made available in their original form as a start, before non-LP material is reconfigured."

For now however, there is no confirmation that these tracks will be made available to stream again.

[Via: Pitchfork and Music Ally]

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag’s Digital Intern, follow him on Twitter