Coldplay’s new album A Head Full of Dreams is being withheld from music-streaming service Spotify, but made available on rivals including Apple Music.
However, this is not a decision to consciously uncouple from Spotify entirely, but rather a choice based on the company’s refusal to restrict the album to its paying customers only.
In that, Coldplay’s decision mirrors Taylor Swift’s decision to remove her entire back catalogue from Spotify in 2014, after it declined to use a similar “windowing” policy for her music.
“The band’s team aren’t anti-Spotify, they’re just not in love with ‘free’ – you can probably expect it to drop on the service after a few weeks,” a source told music-industry site Music Business Worldwide.
“Coldplay’s A Head Full Of Dreams is not yet on Spotify, but we look forward to making it available very soon,” said a spokesperson for the service. The album is already available on Apple Music, while Google has confirmed that its Google Play Music service will also have it.
Coldplay’s back catalogue remains available on Spotify, as do two singles from their new album: Adventure of a Lifetime and Everglow. According to the band’s Spotify profile page, they have 16.2 million monthly listeners on the service.
Spotify may come under pressure from more major artists to relent in its policy of making all its music available to all its users, even the non-paying ones, following Swift and Coldplay’s lead.
In November 2014, Adele’s manager Jonathan Dickins suggested that restricting some albums to premium subscribers only might solve some of Spotify’s high-profile disputes with artists.
“The premium tier to me are real active record buyers, paying their $9.99 or €9.99 or £9.99 a month. My feeling would be to get around the situation with someone like Taylor Swift – but Spotify won’t do it – is a window between making something available on the premium service, earlier than it’s made available on the free service,” said Dickins.
Adele’s latest album 25 is not currently available on any streaming service – free or premium. Her label and management have yet to confirm whether they will press for windowing once it is released to stream.
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