Do you listen to albums straight through, in order? Even before Spotify and iTunes, I never did. I’m a dinosaur who still remembers CDs and cassette tapes, and there are only a handful of albums I could just sit and listen to in the proper “song order.” Fiona Apple’s Tidal. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Um… end of list. But Adele wants people to listen to 30 in order! And Spotify listened. They disabled the “shuffle” function just for Adele.
When it comes to her art, Adele has a certain way she likes things to be done. The singer believes the tracks on an album should be listened to in their order of arrangement — and now she’s got streaming giant Spotify onside.
Following the release of her fourth album “30,” the shuffle button is no longer the default option for album listening on Spotify — but rather listeners will hear the tracks in their listed order.
“This was the only request I had in our ever changing industry!” Adele wrote on Twitter Sunday. “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.”
It seems Spotify was more than happy to oblige, writing “anything for you” in reply to the singer’s tweet. “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,” a Spotify spokesperson told CNN. “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.”
Okay? I feel like maybe the energy around this Adele album has been more subdued than people were expecting, and I still haven’t listened to the full album anyway. I wasn’t even planning on buying the whole album! But sure, I get that Adele wants her fans to listen to the album in a certain way. I just think that maybe there are other things to care about!
Meanwhile, Adele did a special in the UK and there’s a clip of her seeing her favorite teacher and crying. It’s really beautiful! And the Alan Carr part was f–king hilarious.
We all have that one teacher who changed our life… such a beautiful reunion! ❤️
*PS, would totally buy Alan Carr’s version of ‘Make You Feel My Love* ?@Adele #AnAudienceWithAdele https://t.co/2ZZI2RS0mI pic.twitter.com/hlTOOZKt5j
— ITV (@ITV) November 21, 2021
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
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
