Coldplay and Black Keys refuse Spotify new album streams

19 May 2014

Coldplay image via Wikimedia Commons

Spotify will be missing out on two of the biggest album releases this month now that both Coldplay and the Black Keys will not allow their new albums to stream through the service.

A number of artists have decided against allowing the world’s most popular music-streaming service from putting their new music in their listings, with one of the most recent examples being Beyoncé’s latest eponymous album.

Now Coldplay’s Ghost Stories and the Black Keys’ Turn Blue have joined the list.

While a number of other artists have also refused to have their music streamed through Spotify, this marks the first time the company has issued a message to users: “The artist or their representatives have decided not to release this album on Spotify. We are working on it and hope they will change their mind soon.”

According to The Guardian, other artists, such as Atoms for Peace, who are known for their dislike of Spotify, do not have such a message on the service. This may indicate the bigger fish Spotify is attempting to catch are considered more important.

The move is understood to be part of a process known as ‘windowing’, whereby artists aim to make the largest amount possible through digital downloads via services such as iTunes – and to a lesser extent, physical downloads – by delaying the availability of tracks for streaming.

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com