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Adele won’t be sharing her upcoming album ’25’ with Apple Music subscribers

Adele’s people have already tried to get her new blockbuster album, 25, into Apple Store retail shelves as physical CD volumes with no success, but she isn’t so keen on Apple Music streaming. According to the New York Times, Adele’s management has informed digital music distributors that 25 will not be offered for streaming, at least at launch. You can of course buy the album on the iTunes Store; preorders are up now.

Taylor Swift famously keeps her music away from most streaming services except for Apple Music, over an argument of artist revenues. Part of an independent label, XL Recordings, Adele has apparently personally decided that streaming is off the table. Other artists represented by the label appear in Apple Music so it’s not their typical policy to shun streaming music services.

It is likely that ’25’ will reach streaming services eventually but not being available on Apple Music at launch is a bit of a blow. Many had expected it to be a done deal with Apple heavily promoting Adele’s album online and on Beats 1 — host Zane Lowe aired a long interview with Adele on his Beats 1 show yesterday.

The new album is expected to beat recent industry records with estimated sales of 2.5 million copies in the opening week. The last album to achieve comparable figures dates back to 2004 when CD music sales were in their prime. The album’s leading track, Hello, is currently #2 in the iTunes Store singles chart.

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Comments

  1. shawnjcullen - 8 years ago

    I really do think she is getting way to big for her boots. She clearly has talent but this sort of hold out to me smacks of arrogance. I for one won’t be buying, but I’m sure that won’t bother her!

  2. Claude-Michael Comeau - 8 years ago

    “Hello” is on Apple Music right now. Definitely bizarre.

  3. PhilBoogie - 8 years ago

    Bit strange. If the album is going to be sold, highly compressed, why won’t they (yes, they, not her) stream it, compressed, as well? Is selling an album that more profitable than streaming?

  4. TechSHIZZLE.com - 8 years ago

    F**k her money grab.

  5. Who needs streaming? “Adele’s ’25’ Will Ship 3.6 Million Units in U.S., Could Top *NSYNC’s Historic Sales Week” http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6769320/adele-25-sales-shipping-projections-nsync via @billboard

    • iSRS - 8 years ago

      First, thanks for all your scripts in the past. love them.

      Second, the fact that it will ship that much clearly means she won’t be impacted negatively by streaming. The people that stream only don’t buy CDs. They never really did. They’ll find all the songs on YouTube, which are likely already there, or will be within the next 24 hours.

  6. The bigger question here is how much of a delay there will be between album release and its availability for streaming. I have no problem with an artist holding their album off streaming services for a reasonable amount of time. It’s what movies and TV do currently (with varying windows of time). So if Adele wants to do all she can to encourage people to buy, more power to her.

    But if her album never comes to streaming, or if she signs some exclusive deal with a streaming service, that seems more likely to hurt streaming than help artists.

  7. Cory © (@Nardes) - 8 years ago

    I don’t blame her… she’s in quite the position, trying to have the largest album sales in an album’s first week.

  8. galley99 - 8 years ago

    Billboard is reporting that 3.6 million physical copies of “25” have shipped. I still buy music on CD whenever possible.

    FYI: The Deluxe Edition at Target has three exclusive bonus tracks.

  9. benjaminmumford - 8 years ago

    “Adele’s management has informed digital music distributors that 25 will not be offered for streaming, at least at launch.”

    They haven’t said that it won’t be on Apple Music though. They might be telling digital music distributors that is isn’t available for them to stream but still available exclusively on Apple Music!

  10. viciosodiego - 8 years ago

    How the fuck do you expect to sail a cd in 2015?
    Why are people so, persistent?

  11. jessevasquez - 8 years ago

    Her decision I guess, don’t agree with it but oh well.

  12. morganhighley - 8 years ago

    What difference does it make to her? Apple still pays artists during the trial period.

  13. James Stewart - 8 years ago

    A pretty stupid decision, many people who would have otherwise streamed the album and supported her will just torrent the it rather than buy the CD.

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Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Benjamin Mayo

Benjamin develops iOS apps professionally and covers Apple news and rumors for 9to5Mac. Listen to Benjamin, every week, on the Happy Hour podcast. Check out his personal blog. Message Benjamin over email or Twitter.