Spotify has stopped shuffling albums by default following a request from Adele, according to a report by BBC. Previously, when viewing an album on Spotify, you’d see a small shuffle icon within the larger “Play” button. This indicated that Spotify would begin playing the album’s songs in a random order, which isn’t always what users would expect (or want) it to do.
Now, when you hit “Play” in Album View, songs will play in order — that is, as long as you have a Premium subscription. You can still enable shuffle mode by toggling on the “Shuffle” icon when viewing an individual track.
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 ♥️ https://t.co/XWlykhqxAy
— Adele (@Adele) November 21, 2021
Adele appears to have asked Spotify to change this feature, citing that albums should be listened to in a specific order. The singer sent out a tweet to thank Spotify for making the change, noting that “Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended. Thank you Spotify for listening.” Spotify later replied to Adele’s tweet, saying “Anything for you,” suggesting the move was done as a favor.
A Spotify spokesperson confirmed the presence of the new feature to The Verge. “As Adele mentioned, we are excited to share that we have begun rolling out a new Premium feature that has been long requested by both users and artists to make play the default button on all albums,” the spokesperson said. “For those users still wishing to shuffle an album, they can go to the Now Playing View and select the shuffle toggle.”
It’s no coincidence that the change comes just days after the release of Adele’s new album, 30, which has already exploded in popularity. One song, Easy on Me, holds the Spotify record for the most global listens in a single day, kicking k-pop group BTS off of their throne.
