Spotify remodels biz after singer Adele asks for tracks not to be shuffled

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When it comes to how the tracks in a music album should be listened to, Adele knows what she wants. According to the British Grammy winning star, she believes the tracks should not be shuffled on random, but rather listened in their order of arrangement instead, telling a story. Following the release of her latest album, "30", Spotify has listened to the singer and removed the shuffle play button from the top of the page for the album. Nonetheless, the option to shuffle the album still remains.

"This was the only request I had in our ever-changing industry," said Adele (pictured) on her Twitter page on 21 November. "We don't create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason. Our art tells a story and our stories should be listed as we intended. Thank you Spotify for listening".

https://twitter.com/Adele/status/1462260324485242881

While the British singer has had her own fair share of controversies with the audio streaming and media services, Spotify was happy to oblige and replied "anything for you to Adele's tweet. Initially when the singer released her album, titled '25", she decided to shun streaming, saying it was "a bit disposable" and "music should be an event", said an article from CNN. She added that she does not use streaming and buys her music instead.

https://twitter.com/Spotify/status/1462273326722605060

According to CNN, a Spotify spokesperson said the team was excited to share that it has begun rolling out a new premium feature that has been long requested by both users and artists to make play the default button on all albums. "For those users still wishing to shuffle an album, they can go to the "Now Playing View" and select the shuffle toggle. As always, we will continue to iterate our products and features to create the best experiences for both artists and their fans," the spokesperson explained. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Spotify for additional information regarding the premium feature.

Though Spotify obliged Adele's request, netizens on social media were torn on what they felt about the move.

A fair share of users took to Twitter and posted their thanks to the singer for asking Spotify to allow for the consistent track flow experience as "musicians have intended for their works to be listened to in a particular order". Others were however unhappy with the decision and called out on the singer for dictating the way a consumer listens to tracks from an album. One user took to comment on Adele's tweet saying it was "controlling nonsense", and it should be entirely up to the consumer on how to consume a service once payment is made.

Meanwhile, Adele's latest single, "Easy on Me" is said to have broken the record for most-streamed song in a single day, said Spotify in a Twitter post on 16 October 2021. The song was inspired by her latest divorce from Simon Konecki. "It was the first song I wrote for the album and then I didn't write anything else for six months after because I was like, 'OK, well, I've said it all,'" said Adele to BBC.

Separately, Spotify Advertising paid homage to CMOs from some of today's most recognisable brands in its latest campaign "A Song for every CMO" on August this year. It worked with FCB New York and composer Watt White to come up with five unique songs curated for CMOs - Kimberly-Clark's Zena Arnold, Indeed's Jessica Jensen, Frito-Lay's Rachel Ferdinando, Intuit's Lara Balazs, and CVS's Norman de Greve. The songs cover a range of styles, ranging from rap and 90s synth-pop to alternate rock. According to Spotify, this is the first album drop with more CMO songs rolling out in the coming months. The five songs each unique and personalised lyrics and titles.

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