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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Jon Brady

Dundee singer Be Charlotte backs Adele's Spotify album shuffle block

Dundee singer Be Charlotte has backed Adele's call for Spotify to remove the shuffle button from album playback, amid hopes that the platform will do more to engage with artists in future.

The singer-songwriter, real name Charlotte Brimner, is working on her own debut album to be released next year.

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme, she said she backed the English star's request to make sequential playback the default choice when playing an album.

Until now, pressing the large play button on an album would play it in shuffle order.

Artists have objected to this in the past because they often agonise over the order of the tracks before the album is pressed.

Adele's tweet thanking Spotify for making the change to album playback (@Adele/Twitter)

"I've been recording my album for this past year and one of the things that you spend the most time on is figuring out that order," Charlotte said.

"This is an album I've definitely wanted to write in a specific order and I want it to be released in that way.

"I find the news very encouraging...to have any power over Spotify, to know that Spotify are listening to some artists is great.

"Maybe we can get some other things other than the shuffle button happening at some point, that would be amazing.

"I think, I've seen a few people on Twitter saying to me: 'I can't listen to it in order'.

"My response is: 'You can still skip a song if you don't like it.'"

Adele persuaded Spotify bosses to remove shuffle play from her new album 30 (Cliff Lipson/CBS via Getty)

Adele's intervention on Spotify is a rare example of an artist's influence over the streaming platform, which has around 172 million paid subscribers around the world.

Adele's previous album, 25, was only available to buy digitally or on physical media after she refused to allow the album to be released on streaming platforms.

It was eventually released on streaming services seven months after the physical release.

In contrast, new album 30 was released simultaneously on streaming platforms and on physical media last week.

The 33-year-old wrote on Twitter of the shuffle button removal: "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."

Spotify responded: "Anything for you," with clasped hands and star emojis.

However, artists are still largely at the behest of the Swedish streaming giant, which has dramatically reshaped how people listen to music since launching in 2008.

Although the company does not share data on how much it pays artists, most estimates suggest that singers and bands receive an average as £0.0031 - 0.31 pence - per stream.

That means an artist would need around 2,874 streams to make one hour of the National Living Wage of £8.91.

The #BrokenRecord campaign, started by musician Tom Gray, was established last year to highlight the fact very few artists can live off of streaming royalties.

Charlotte added: "Unfortunately, we're all pretty aware of it. There's still not that much choice, I guess.

"It feels great that we're all coming together and saying 'Wait a minute this actually isn't right.'

"I hope we'll have a bit more movement at some point soon but if Spotify are listening to artists then that's great news, hopefully."

Charlotte's comments were echoed by the Newport-on-Tay born singer Horse McDonald.

Horse said of Spotify's decision to remove the button: "It's a start. [Adele's] in a very powerful position and for Spotify to go 'anything you want Adele' is kind of shocking because there are many people fighting our government trying to figure out a way of getting a fair remuneration for artists.

"Per stream, if you're lucky, you get 0.04 pence per stream. It's unfair.

"If Adele wasn't someone in that position she'd be exactly the same as other artists. But she might not want to rock the boat."

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