Why Adele isn’t streaming her new album on Apple Music or Spotify

“By restricting her new album ’25’ from streaming services Apple Music and Spotify, Adele is playing to her greatest strength: wide appeal,” Lucas Shaw reports for Bloomberg. “The British singer is the rare artist whose allure spans demographic groups, from teenagers on YouTube and Spotify to adults who visit record stores or frequent iTunes.”

“Adele and Sony Corp.’s music division are betting customers of all ages will want her album so much that they’ll show up at record stores and on iTunes to buy a copy in bigger numbers than ever before,” Shaw reports. “Music purchases deliver more profit to the artist and the label than streaming services do. First-week projections for ’25’ range as high as 2.5 million units, which would be the biggest opening since Nielsen began tracking album sales in 1991. It’s [available now for $10.99 on Apple’s iTunes Store].”

“Adele has tangled with Spotify before over free music. She initially withheld her album ’21’ because the service refused to limit the songs to paying subscribers,” Shaw reports. “Web-radio pioneer Pandora Media Inc., which operates under different rules than its streaming rivals, will have access to the album and offer it to its customers within a few days.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: After the initial sales burst, Apple Music will get the tracks for streaming. For now, as usual, it’s available at Apple’s iTunes Store for $10.99.

SEE ALSO:
Adele rejects streaming music services, including Apple Music, for ‘25’ – November 19, 2015
Adele’s new album ’25’ may break ‘impossible’ sales record – November 19, 2015