Adele wants you to listen to her album in order, and Spotify agrees
By Jeevan Ravindran, CNN
When it comes to her art, Adele has a certain way she likes things to be done. The singer believes the tracks on an album should be listened to in their order of arrangement — and now she’s got streaming giant Spotify onside.
Following the release of her fourth album “30,” the shuffle button is no longer the default option for album listening on Spotify — but rather listeners will hear the tracks in their listed order.
“This was the only request I had in our ever changing industry!” Adele wrote on Twitter Sunday. “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.”
It seems Spotify was more than happy to oblige, writing “anything for you” in reply to the singer’s tweet.
“As Adele mentioned, we are excited to share that we have begun rolling out a new Premium feature that has been long requested by both users and artists to make play the default button on all albums,” a Spotify spokesperson told CNN. “For those users still wishing to shuffle an album, they can go to the Now Playing View and select the shuffle toggle. As always, we will continue to iterate our products and features to create the best experiences for both artists and their fans.”
The album “30,” which released on November 19 and focuses on Adele’s healing process following her divorce from ex-husband Simon Konecki, has garnered widespread acclaim from critics. The singer has described it as the one closest to her heart.
Premium listeners can still shuffle individual tracks if they wish, but several fans thanked Adele online for the update, saying they would never listen to an album on shuffle particularly the first time round.
A significant portion of users appear to be annoyed by the move, with several fans criticizing Adele for requesting the removal of the default shuffle.
Taylor Swift previously criticized Spotify for its free service, arguing artists were not paid enough royalties and pulling her entire catalog from the platform in 2014 — although she reversed the move in 2017.
Adele’s own relationship with Spotify hasn’t always been so cozy, however. When she released her last album “25,” she decided to shun streaming, saying it was “a bit disposable” and “music should be an event.” The album was later added to streaming.
Last month, “Easy on Me,” the lead single from “30,” broke Spotify’s record for most-streamed song in a single day, and broke the UK record for most streams in a single week.
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