Fans of Adele will need to buy her new album if they want to listen to songs from it, as the singer is preventing music streaming services from offering the album to subscribers. Confirming initial reports, the album '
25' is unavailable for listening on Apple Music, Google Play Music All Access, Spotify, and other streaming services, but iTunes is still offering the album to users for purchase via the main iTunes store.
Reports from earlier this week suggested the blocking of streaming would take place, with
sources of the
New York Times claiming Adele had become personally involved with the decision, though the record label has yet to officially comment on the matter. Adele has previously prevented streaming services from using her albums for periods of time, with '21' kept off Spotify for over a year after release.
One recent rumor suggested Adele was turning down Spotify for streaming as the label wanted it limited to just subscribers. Spotify confirmed to
the BBC it was unable to offer the track, with a spokesperson stating "We love and respect Adele, as do her 24 million fans on Spotify. We hope that she will give those fans the opportunity to enjoy 25 on Spotify alongside 19 and 21 very soon."
While there is yet to be an explanation from Adele or the record label, the ban on streaming the album has echoes of a similar move by
Taylor Swift last year. The singer pulled her entire back catalog from Spotify in the same week of an album launch, with Swift complaining about low royalty payments received by artists when music was streamed compared to being made available by other means. Spotify claimed shortly after that it had paid out over
$2 billion in royalties for streams, with Swift getting $6 million, but her label went on to dispute this as being in fact
less than $500,000.
Earlier this year, Swift waded into a dispute between Apple and musical artists over non-payment of royalties while users enjoyed the three-month
Apple Music trial. After Apple relented and confirmed it would pay rights holders royalties during the trial, Swift went on to
license the '1989' album for use on Apple Music.
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