Naturally, avid listeners of the British singer were looking forward to streaming it on digital music services such as Apple Music, Spotify and Deezer.
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Just when you think you can’t possibly fall in love with Adele any more, she goes and pulls a stunt like this.
Adele is said to have been personally involved with the decision, which mirrors one made a year ago by American pop princess Taylor Swift when she withdrew her music from Spotify, complaining that the service was devaluing her music by letting its users listen to it free.
With a very huge impact on the music scene the new Adele album could make, NY Times revealed how heavy this decision of the singer would be for them.
Pulling the highly anticipated album from the streaming platforms will force listeners to buy it digitally and at stores, driving its sales.
“I can’t wait for the new album… new music, it’ll be so wonderful”, one impersonator says. “I would never disrespect her like that”, Adele said during an interview with Zane Lowe on his Beats 1 radio show. Coming off of the 11 million selling 21, the response to 25’s first single “Hello” was overwhelmingly positive.
Beyonce withheld her last album, Beyonce, from streaming for almost a year after releasing it in late 2013. Many artists have no choice but to offer their music for streaming if they want to get their music to the masses, meaning that they have to accede to the terms set by the services.
Released through independent record label XL Recordings, Adele co-wrote a few of the songs on 25 with the likes of Bruno Mars, Ryan Tedder, Greg Kurstin and Paul Epworth.
Adele’s new album was met with high praise from critics. “She’s benefiting from paid subscriptions, but she’s using this as an opportunity to try and sell more CD’s or downloads”, and added, “If all artists did this, we wouldn’t have the growth in subscriptions we have”. She did put the album on Apple Music in July, after it agreed to pay artists during a free trial. Which means if the album does sell 3.5 million in the first week, she stands to bring in a cool 38.5 million dollars.
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Adele will perform as a special musical guest on the November 21 episode of “Saturday Night Live”.
