Adele's '25' hits Apple Music, Spotify, other streaming services
Grammy Award-winner Adele's latest album, "25," was made available for streaming through a variety of services at midnight on Friday, including Apple Music and Spotify, some seven months after initial release.
Streaming availability was announced on Thursday as subscribers in countries like Australia gained access to the hit album, reports Billboard. The rollout is being handled on a market-by-market basis, with Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal and Amazon Prime all confirming Friday availability for paying members.
Adele's "25" makes its streaming debut seven months after Sony released digital and physical copies of the hotly anticipated follow-up to "21" in November. With chart-topping tracks like "Hello" and "When We Were Young," the album moved a record-smashing 3.38 million copies in its first week of sales, including digital downloads.
A report last year said Adele's camp moved to keep "25" off Spotify at launch unless the streaming music giant restricted playback to paying subscribers, though Spotify refuted those claims. It was also suggested that Apple had approached the singer with an exclusivity deal, presumably in hopes of replicating the huge success seen with a Beyonce exclusive in 2013.
Exclusive content is becoming an increasingly important marketing tool as the music industry moves toward all-you-can-eat streaming distribution models. With a pure subscription model Apple Music locked down its first big-name act when Taylor Swift agreed to license "1989" when it debuted last year. Competitor Spotify, which operates a free-to-stream tier, has seen mixed results, notably missing out on "1989" due to an ongoing dispute over royalties.
Most recently, Apple Music in May snagged Chance the Rapper's album "Coloring Book," which subsequently became the first streaming exclusive to debut in the top ten of the Billboard 200 albums chart.
Streaming availability was announced on Thursday as subscribers in countries like Australia gained access to the hit album, reports Billboard. The rollout is being handled on a market-by-market basis, with Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal and Amazon Prime all confirming Friday availability for paying members.
Adele's "25" makes its streaming debut seven months after Sony released digital and physical copies of the hotly anticipated follow-up to "21" in November. With chart-topping tracks like "Hello" and "When We Were Young," the album moved a record-smashing 3.38 million copies in its first week of sales, including digital downloads.
A report last year said Adele's camp moved to keep "25" off Spotify at launch unless the streaming music giant restricted playback to paying subscribers, though Spotify refuted those claims. It was also suggested that Apple had approached the singer with an exclusivity deal, presumably in hopes of replicating the huge success seen with a Beyonce exclusive in 2013.
Exclusive content is becoming an increasingly important marketing tool as the music industry moves toward all-you-can-eat streaming distribution models. With a pure subscription model Apple Music locked down its first big-name act when Taylor Swift agreed to license "1989" when it debuted last year. Competitor Spotify, which operates a free-to-stream tier, has seen mixed results, notably missing out on "1989" due to an ongoing dispute over royalties.
Most recently, Apple Music in May snagged Chance the Rapper's album "Coloring Book," which subsequently became the first streaming exclusive to debut in the top ten of the Billboard 200 albums chart.
Comments
No, actually I think he's spot on. I just had to get that out...
Class and talent shine. When I first heard Hometown Glory, I thought it was quite arresting in it's brilliance. Had I known at the time she was 16 when she wrote that I would have been stunned. I can remember two other instances in my life of being so easily and correctly able to spot such pure talent: One was hearing Waterloo, by ABBA from radio Luxembourg an a MW radio in Ireland on a visit just after they had won Eurovision, though I didn't know that at the time or even what Eurovision was. The other was hearing U2s Sunday, Bloody Sunday, in Australia from the BBC via Short Wave radio.
I think the critical difference is musical creativity vs performance - the ability to write and create original material. Adele has that, The Beatles had it, the Stones had it, Marvin Gaye, Prince, U2, Abba and many others have/had it - TS doesn't.
I predicted this would happen. It means her initial sales were not warranted. Remember I'm in the music business. And that album was DOA except for extreme fans. It was ever worse than waiting 8 years for the big come back of Kraftwerk which landed like a lead ballon. Uninspired and uneventful.
SHE was the one that said "No way am I ever letting these streaming companies stream my album", so at the time I predicted, if it bombs she'll blame her management team. Then embrace streaming platform. But first she'll sell as many as she can and in the world of "here before buying ALL her sales were older people in the UK who still bought CD's "sight unseen (well sight unheard I guess). But the second it hit the very houses of the people who bought it the reaction was the same, "huh? We waited all this time and this was the best she could come up with??"
And now here we are - "streaming". Yep time to do "26" or whatever the hell the name of the next one will be....
In the music business but uses Beats, colour cordinated with your shoes - hmmmmm.