A new report indicates that Spotify will allow artists to release music only on the paid tier of the popular streaming service, marking a huge shift in company policy. Until now, the company has insisted it will only allow music to be released by artists on both its free and paid subscription tiers, or not at all.
The company has been under pressure lately because some of the biggest selling artists of the past several years have shunned the service upon releasing their newest albums because of Spotify's all or nothing policy. Last year, Taylor Swift famously criticized the company and refused to release her megahit album "1989" on the service.
Adele also made headlines with a similar decision not to release her new collection "25" on Spotify. The album wound up breaking various worldwide and U.S. sales records, including smashing the previous record for the number of albums sold in the first week of release by more than 1 million, with a total of 3.48 million copies of "25" sold.
This was of concern to Spotify because it showed the potential for other artists to employ the same strategy.
Coldplay soon followed in Adele's footsteps when they announced that they too would not be releasing their new album "A Head Full of Dreams" on Spotify simultaneously with its physical and digital release on Dec. 4.
The group, however, will be making all tracks from its new album available on Spotify a week later. Spotify just trumpeted the decision in a statement that reiterated its commitment to its free tier.
"We are 100 percent committed to our model because we believe that a free, ad-supported tier combined with a more robust premium tier is the best way to deliver music to fans, create value for artists and songwriters, and grow the industry," Spotify stated.
"In that context, we explored a wide range of promotional options for the new Coldplay album and ultimately decided, together with management, that Coldplay and [their] fans would best be served with the full album on both free and premium this Friday."
