Why Adele might be the latest artist to keep her new album off Spotify
The Verge reports that Adele wants to release the album to paid subscribers only, effectively barring a majority of Spotify users from streaming the album, and is negotiating with Spotify for such a rollout. Of the 75 million users on Spotify, around 20 million are paid subscribers.
Adele kept "21" off of Spotify for more than a year after its 2011 release after the company denied the same deal.
If Adele does keep her new album off Spotify, she certainly wouldn't be the first artist to do so. Back in 2013, Beyoncé released her self-titled album as an iTunes exclusive, and last year, Taylor Swift kept "1989" away from Spotify. Beyoncé's album can now be found on Spotify, but Swift has removed nearly all of her music from the streaming service. Coldplay has also held some of its albums from the service for months, and the relese of the band's upcoming "A Head Full of Dreams" is also up in the air.
As of right now, no other streaming service, such as Apple Music or Google Play Music, has made a deal with Adele and her team for the new album.
Regardless of the deal, Adele's album is projected to sell more than 1 million copies in its first week - a milestone in these slow sales days for the music industry. And until its release, users are free to listen to "Hello" as many times as they want.