Spotify has agreed to remove its default shuffle feature, which plays album tracks in random order, at the request of Adele who wishes for her latest album, 30, to be heard in its intended order.
Explaining the changes to Billboard, a spokesperson from the streaming platform said, “As Adele mentioned, we are excited to share that we have 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. As always, we will continue to iterate our products and features to create the best experiences for both artists and their fans.”
However, the spokesperson also clarified that users who still want to shuffle an album can go to the “Now Playing” view and select the shuffle toggle to do so.
The move has come about after Adele, and apparently other artists too, explained why the shuffle feature detracted from their projects and the work put into them. “This was the only request I had in our ever-changing industry!” Adele Tweeted on November 20. “We don’t create albums with so much care and thought into our tracklisting for no reason. Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended. Thank you, Spotify for listening.”
This was the only request I had in our ever changing industry! 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 listened to as we intended. Thank you Spotify for listening 🍷♥️ https://t.co/XWlykhqxAy
— Adele (@Adele) November 21, 2021
The music streamer replied to Adele’s post with their own Tweet that read: “Anything for you.”
Adele makes an interesting point and one that even the most dedicated of music lovers might have forgotten in the age of Spotify and track shuffling — that, typically, records are crafted with a conscious beginning, middle and end. To shuffle their songs might not necessarily impede your enjoyment of the music, but it could certainly detract from your true understanding of the journey the artist has hoped to take you on.
When it comes to an album like Adele’s 30, which such a raw exploration of her personal life, including her divorce from her husband, it makes sense that the album has been thoughtfully designed to take the listener along a chronological timeline of these events as the singer herself re-lives, and re-emerges, from them.
30 has been six years in the making, marking Adele’s finest album release since 2015’s 25. The record’s lead single, ‘Easy on Me’ has spent the last four consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts.
The full album is now available to stream, in order, on Spotify.
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