Radiohead transfers back catalogue rights from Parlophone to XL
Radiohead fans may have noticed that some of the band’s vintage B-sides and special edition album tracks have recently gone missing from streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. Among the missing works are “Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong” from the group’s second studio album The Bends and “The Trickster” from the same recording sessions, as well as “How I Made Millions” and “Palo Alto from Radiohead’s third studio album OK Computer. The basic versions of these albums are still available to stream, but the deluxe “Special Collector’s Edition” versions of album have vanished. Perhaps most obviously, an Apple Music playlist titled ‘Radiohead: 90s B-sides” has been trimmed to just two songs.
A representative for XL, an imprint on the Beggars Group consortium of independent labels, revealed that Radiohead’s back catalogue is being transferred from Parlophone to XL. XL is the label which previously released Thom Yorke’s The Eraser; Radiohead’s In Rainbows (which has never been available on streaming services), and Radiohead’s The King Of Limbs worldwide excluding North America. The spokesperson stated 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.”
Among streaming services, Spotify is the only platform to share a statement thus far. A Spotify spokesperson told Pitchfork: “As a result of a change in rights ownership of Radiohead’s catalog, 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.” In an previous statement to Music Ally, Spotify explained that the change was due to “the transfer of Radiohead’s catalog from Warner Music to Beggars Group.”
H/T: Mixmag, Pitchfork, Music Ally
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