Still hot on the release of her latest album 30 last Friday, Adele has made her opinions on the Spotify shuffle button well known. She took to Twitter to say that “We don’t create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason. Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended.” In response, the streaming giant simply said “Anything for you”, confirming the removal of the button.
This was the only request I had in our ever changing industry! We don’t create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason. Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended. Thank you Spotify for listening https://t.co/XWlykhqxAy
— Adele (@Adele) November 21, 2021
Adele is not alone in these worries. Throughout the years, other artists have worried about the effect of streaming services on the integrity of their work, with Pink Floyd suing (and winning against) their record label EMI back in 2010 over them selling songs from the band’s past albums as individual separate tracks. Radiohead had similar reservations back in 2007 with their album In Rainbows.
Adele’s release portrays her own emotional journey since divorcing ex-husband Simon Konecki, and throughout the twelve tracks, it eventually sees her getting back into the dating world again. She said of the release: “I feel like this album is self-destruction, then self-reflection and then sort of self-redemption. But I feel ready. I really want people to hear my side of the story this time.” Luckily, after Spotify’s cooperation, Adele’s story seems a bit safer. However, the shuffle button still exists for individual tracks, and therefore users may still start an album in any place and then play on random.
Adele’s scepticism of streaming services doesn’t seem to be a new thing. Her previous album, 2015’s 25, was originally only available by physical purchase or downloads. It was only in June the following year that she finally relinquished, after already having sold around 20 million copies. Forbes magazine argues that the increasing domination of streaming services over the last six years has made a repeat of this untenable; leaving Adele forced to work with the platforms. Despite this, her label Sony Music has announced half a million vinyl pressings of the album.
And Spotify would do well to keep on her good side. The success of Adele’s single “Easy On Me” last month broke records for both Spotify and Amazon Music. Spotify saw the single rake in the most first-day streams it had ever seen, with 24 million plays. Amazon Music reported it as receiving the most first-day Alexa song requests as well. Played in sequence or shuffled about, it seems people want to listen to her story, whatever the order.
