Adele has been basking in the success of her fourth album, 30. The multiple Grammy-winning artist loves to define art in her own style and when it comes to her albums, she sets her own standards. This time, Adele personally requested streaming giant Spotify to remove the default shuffle feature from her album. In this way, users will be able to listen to the songs in her album in their original order just like the British singer-songwriter planned it. Now, Spotify Premium subscribers can listen to songs on any album in order.
Explaining her thoughts via a tweet, Adele wrote, “This was the only request I had in our ever-changing industry.” Adele voiced her opinion about an artist’s vision and claimed that the sequence in which songs were placed in an album was a part of this vision.
“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,” read her post.
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
Spotify responded to Adele’s tweet with “anything for you.”
It should be noted that this feature is only available for Premium subscribers. In Album View, if a user now hits ‘Play,’ the songs can be listened to in the original intended order. Those who still wish to listen to songs in shuffled order, all they need to do is toggling on the ‘Shuffle’ icon when viewing a single track.
Twitter users shared their thoughts on the matter. Here’s what user @PromQueenMusic said:
I don’t mind radio if that’s what someone is signing up for. What I dislike is that if u don’t pay for Spotify you couldn’t listen to an album in order until this change. Variety is great, but when it’s about a single album, I prefer it to default to tracklist order as intended.
— Prom Queen (@PromQueenMusic) November 21, 2021
A few users thought that Spotify has changed their hearts for good. The earlier default shuffle play feature wasn’t liked by many listeners. One user wrote, “The free version of Spotify offered only ‘shuffle play’ because they specifically did not want to give consumers control, as an incentive to purchase the paid version.”
The free version of Spotify offered ONLY “shuffle play” because they specifically did NOT want to give consumers control, as an incentive to purchase the paid version. You are mad they are allowing people to hear the full album start to finish?
— kaikin (@KathleenAikin) November 21, 2021