Radiohead has just uploaded their entire discography onto YouTube, and the reason is completely understandable. 

Legendary band of our times Radiohead, who have a burning hatred of Spotify that can only be matched by that of Joanna Newsom, have officially uploaded their entire discography to YouTube. This decision arrives only days after Billboard announced that they will be factoring in YouTube streams when determining an album’s charting status.

It looks like Thom Yorke and co. are after those ranking numbers to go up after all.

Currently, you can head to Radiohead’s YouTube account and delve into the many treasures of their discography, with every album (but technically not every song) they’ve officially released. The timestamps of everything up through Hail to the Thief have a published timestamp of 2016, and YouTube has labelled each playlist as being “updated yesterday”. The motivation behind such a decision is as of yet unclear.

Last Friday, Billboard broke the news that the Billboard 200 (as well as genre album charts, like Country, R&B/Hip-Hop, and Latin) will include official video plays from YouTube and “several music streaming services” when determining ranking. It’s the latest update in an effort to recognize the chart’s focal shift from pure sales to consumption model — even though music charts themselves aren’t always necessary.

Pretty much every member of Radiohead has been keeping themselves busy since the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame back in March. Thom Yorke released his stunning solo project titled ANIMA, and also created a song for the movie Motherless Brooklyn with Flea. The song has since received an Oscar nomination.

Meanwhile, Ed O’Brien has announced his debut solo album to arrive in the year of 2020, and Jonny Greenwood has launched a new record label for strictly classical music, also popping by the Tiny Desk Concert of NPR.

Love Classic Rock?

Get the latest Classic Rock news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more

Listen to ‘No Surprises’ by Radiohead

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine