Spotify stops shuffling albums by default, as per Adele’s request

If you prefer listening to your albums on Spotify in the order that the artist intended, you probably have to thank Adele. The music streaming giant will apparently do anything for the pop singer as they have now stopped shuffling albums by default after she requested that artists’ albums be listened to as they intended since they created those albums to tell stories. Those who still want to listen randomly to albums can still do so by toggling the shuffle button from the Now Playing view.

Previously, when you play an album on Spotify, you’ll see a shuffle icon in the Play button which meant that you’ll listen to the album in random order. While some prefer that kind of listening style, there are albums that are meant to be listened to in its actual order. In a tweet, Adele said that they create these albums with “so much care and thought” since their art tells a story. She thanked Spotify for listening to her request and Spotify replied “Anything for you”.

So thanks to Adele, the default for tapping play in album view is that you’ll be able to listen to it in its actual order. This is of course exclusive to Premium users. Those who are listening to Spotify free will still get the shuffled order. And if you prefer to really listen in the shuffle mode, you can still do so by toggling on the Shuffle icon when you’re playing an individual track. The main difference now is that it’s not turned on by default.

This has apparently been a long requested feature as per Chris Macowski, head of music communications at Spotify. And it’s not just users that were calling for this but the artists as well. As Adele said, they have put a lot of effort into telling a story through their music so the least people could do is to listen to this story in the order they intended. Playlists and radio stations are a different matter and that’s when the shuffle mode can really do its magic.

Adele’s new album, 30, was just recently released and one of the songs, Easy On Me, now has the record for most global listens in one day. No surprise that Spotify would do anything for her.