Adele Finally Speaks Up On Why She Turned Down Spotify’s Offer To Stream Her New Album

In an exclusive interview with TIME, Adele finally shared her thoughts on why she turned down Spotify and Apple Music in their offer to stream her new album, 25. It was a big decision simply on account of the level of anticipation that preceded the album’s release. A week after 25‘s release last November 18, Adele’s new album broke the record for most sales in the first week in the U.S. by selling a whopping 3.38 million copies. Fans who want to listen to Adele’s new album, however, will have to find some other means to do so. They will have to either buy the CD from a music store or download the album in order to listen to the new Adele record.

“I believe music should be an event,” Adele said. “For me, all albums that come out, I’m excited about leading up to release day. I don’t use streaming. I buy my music. I download it, and I buy a physical [copy] just to make up for the fact that someone else somewhere isn’t. It’s a bit disposable, streaming.”

Music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music are being widely used by netizens all over the world for years now. These companies, however, have been criticized numerous times for not compensating artists enough. Taylor Swift, for instance, decided to remove her entire music catalog from Spotify. Later, Swift sent an open letter to Apple asking the company to change its policies on how music artists are paid. It was a bold move on Taylor’s part, considering the rising popularity of both music streaming services even among her fans.

Adele shared her admiration for what Taylor Swift did in the interview with TIME.

“It was amazing,” Adele says of Swift’s decision. “I love her—how powerful she is. We’ll get lumped together now because of it, but I think we would both feel the ability to say yes or no to things even if we
weren’t successful.”

The 26-year-old singer is well aware that “music streaming is the future,” but that “it’s not the only way to consume music.”

“I can’t pledge allegiance to something that I don’t know how I feel about yet.” she said.

Adele explained that she would have been proud of her decision to not allow her album to be streamed even if it flopped. “I would have been proud because I stuck to my guns, and I think it’s really important as an artist that you do that,” she said.

Interestingly, even as Adele’s 25 album can’t be found on Spotify, the same can’t be said for her first two albums 19 and 21, not to mention the new record’s chart-topping lead single “Hello.” Does this mean that Adele isn’t discounting the possibility of allowing 25 to be streamed in the near future? For now, we can only speculate, but it’s worth noting that Spotify is still holding out hope that Adele will eventually change her decision.

“We love and respect Adele, as do her 24 million fans on Spotify,” said a rep from the giant music streaming company to Engadget. “We hope that she will give those fans the opportunity to enjoy 25 on Spotify alongside 19 and 21 very soon.”

Speaking of Adele’s fans, many took to Twitter to express their dismay about the Hello singer’s decision to not allow her record to be streamed on Spotify and Apple Music.

All I really want for Christmas is for Adele to release her new album on Spotify.

— Hayden Thrasher (@HaydenThrash) December 20, 2015

Adele is so selfish for not letting Apple Music stream her music ??

— Marissa (@_mevanns) December 18, 2015

When asked how she managed to sell 3.38 million copies in a week in the U.S. alone, Adele expressed her bafflement by referencing the Queen of England.

“It’s a bit ridiculous. I’m not even from America. Maybe they think I’m related to the Queen. Americans are obsessed with the royal family.”

[Photo by Sascha Steinbach/Getty Images]