In less than 24 hours, the biggest event in the music industry this year - the release of Adele’s 25 - will happen, but it won’t be available on any streaming service.
Last week, it was rumored that Adele and Sony Music’s Columbia Records would be keeping the album off of Spotify. Record executives reportedly asked Spotify to make 25 only available for premium subscribers, but the streaming service turned them down.
Now, The New York Times is reporting that the major streaming services have all been told that 25 won’t be available. The Times reports that Adele was “personally involved” in the decision.
Nevertheless, the music industry expects 25’s release to be huge. Billboard reports that Columbia has shipped 3.6 million physical copies of the album to be in stores on Friday. That’s the largest number of copies available during a release week since 4.2 million copies of *NSYNC’s No Strings Attached was in stores in 2000.
Speaking of No Strings Attached, 25 could break the record the album set with the biggest single week since 1991, when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales. No Strings Attached sold 2.415 million copies and music executives think 25 will sell 2.5 million (including 900,000 copies from digital sales).
Adele’s previous album, 21, has sold 11.2 million copies in the U.S. since it was released in 2011.