New Adele album to be withheld from Apple Music, Spotify, other streaming services

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited December 2015
Singer Adele's new album, 25, reportedly won't be made available on streaming services like Apple Music or Spotify when it launches on Friday.




Adele herself was personally involved in the decision, sources told the New York Times on Thursday. That will leave people with the option of buying a digital download from stores like iTunes or Google Play, or else going with an old-fashioned physical copy.

Last week, a rumor claimed that Adele and her team were considering skipping Spotify unless streaming was limited to Premium subscribers, from which labels generate more money. Spotify denied the claim, which simultaneously hinted that Apple had approached Adele about making 25 an exclusive, but had the offer rejected.

The singer may have had the same motives as Taylor Swift, who pulled her music from Spotify a year ago, complaining about weak royalty payments from streaming. Earlier in 2015, Swift briefly threatened to keep her music off of Apple Music -- citing Apple's plan to skip paying royalties for trial listeners -- but the company quickly bowed to pressure.

In October Adele's talent agency, William Morris Endeavor, was rumored to have pitched Apple on a $30 million tour sponsorship deal. The pitch may have even included a request to stock CDs in Apple Stores, which was allegedly turned down.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 102
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,189member

    No matter. I'm sure the CD is available elsewhere to download, for those who can't find it through one of the regular streaming services.

  • Reply 2 of 102
    That's ok there are other ways to acquire it, but you won't get any money for it.
  • Reply 3 of 102
    That's ok, I dont listen to her anyway.
  • Reply 4 of 102
    Adele is a chump anyway. Glad to hear it won't show up at all, by any chance, on my ?Music feed.
  • Reply 5 of 102
    Its already available on itunes...
    What next friday release ?
  • Reply 6 of 102
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    cpsro wrote: »
    No matter. I'm sure the CD is available elsewhere to download, for those who can't find it through one of the regular streaming services.
    willgonz wrote: »
    That's ok there are other ways to acquire it, but you won't get any money for it.

    Disgusting.

    People work their ass off to complete albums only to have selfish fu**s promote free ways to fu** Adele and other artists over with ZERO benefit to themselves.

    What do you gain really by artists losing hundreds of hours of work and millions of dollars? What?

    NOTHING.
  • Reply 7 of 102
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member
    Guess I won't be listening to it then...
  • Reply 8 of 102
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member
    cali wrote: »

    Disgusting.

    People work their ass off to complete albums only to have selfish fu**s promote free ways to fu** Adele and other artists over with ZERO benefit to themselves.

    What do you gain really by artists losing hundreds of hours of work and millions of dollars? What?

    NOTHING.

    It's 2015. Any artist that "withholds" their music from a streaming service might as will just give up.
  • Reply 9 of 102
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    cpsro wrote: »
    No matter. I'm sure the CD is available elsewhere to download, for those who can't find it through one of the regular streaming services.
    CD? Of what do you speak?
  • Reply 10 of 102
    I'll just get it for free.
  • Reply 11 of 102
    This will go one of two ways. If the album is a hit she'll milk it till sales level off then take it to streaming to try to get a little more money. Or if the album is a bust then she'll "change her mind" blame the decision of her manager and it will suddenly be on Apple Music. Some money is better than no money.

    However, being in the industry if I was asked I would have advised apple to not sell it either.

    Remember when NBC decided they wanted "more of the pie" and pulled all its TV content from iTunes Store? All because they had a little hit called HEROES? GRIN. They were so sure apple would buckle but they stood firm. "Same fee as everyone else", so NBC being idiots offered it selling it "exclusively" to Amazon streaming. One BIG problem... Mac people buy, PC people don't. Look at android. I degrees... After just one season of zero sales they came crawling back to Apple and there show was canceled a year later "lack of interest".

    I predict one of those two things I mentioned at the top will happen to Adele but I wish apple would NOT sell it too. Let it belly flop then she can come crawling back.
  • Reply 12 of 102
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pmz View Post





    It's 2015. Any artist that "withholds" their music from a streaming service might as will just give up.

    There are countless millions of people who won't stream music. Those are the generations brought up on Vinyl (I work in the building where EMI packaged LP's such as Sgt Pepper) and Cassette. We prefer physical media.

    To stream you have to have an umbilical cord to the internet. I go places where this is not possible so I take my music with me. All from Vinyl or CD. We generally don't download either.

    There is nothing wrong in my eyes with her decision.

    Oh, I'm buying music on Vinyl again. Sounds brilliant on my Quad Electostatics.

  • Reply 13 of 102
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by willgonz View Post



    That's ok there are other ways to acquire it, but you won't get any money for it.



    Because, like, theft is so ethical. Don’t like how much something costs? Steal it.

  • Reply 14 of 102
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,153member
    willgonz wrote: »
    That's ok there are other ways to acquire it, but you won't get any money for it.

    macvicta wrote: »
    I'll just get it for free.

    :rolleyes: Apple. Users. Don't. Steal.

    That's for poor Android folks who don't want to pay for anything, remember?
  • Reply 15 of 102
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by MacVicta View Post



    I'll just get it for free.



    Common thief you are. Perhaps Sharia Law should be applied in this case. Which hand can you do without?

  • Reply 16 of 102
    mike1mike1 Posts: 3,273member

    Amazing how entiltled some people seem to think they are. If you won't give it to them free, they'll just steal it.

    Unbelievable.

  • Reply 17 of 102
    ecatsecats Posts: 272member
    HBO figured this out pretty quickly with GOT. Streaming really isn't an "option" anymore. Certainly OK for Adele + Team to make up their own mind about this, but unfortunately the decision really does invite high levels of piracy and keeps the pirate sites flush with users.
  • Reply 18 of 102
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Just further proof to me that there is nothing unique about Apple Music. Being pay-only didn't seem to matter to Adele.
  • Reply 19 of 102
    anomeanome Posts: 1,531member
    It makes sense, really. We know that the artist doesn't make that much money off streaming, while they do get slightly more off sales, whether they be of CDs or downloads. So they release the album, wait until the sales plateau, then release it to streaming, if at all. Just the same way movie companies do with films.

    Maybe she'll never let it be streamed. The people who were going to buy it anyway will buy it, and the rest of them weren't willing to pay for it, anyway. (There will probably be a few who were going to just listen to it on Spotify that will buy it, but that only means more money for her) She's popular enough she doesn't have to worry about new listeners and discovery. She'll get the radio and TV airplay to get any new listeners because of who she is.

    If she were a small indie artist no-one had heard of, then it wouldn't make sense. Because she's already well known and regarded, she doesn't have to worry.
  • Reply 20 of 102

    Just listen to Beats 1. Probably heard half that album earlier today already.

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