Spotify Disables Shuffle Play by Default for Albums

It sounds like a little thing, but it’s odd that Spotify defaulted to shuffle play for albums. That is, until Adele stepped in.

“This was the only request I had in our ever-changing industry,” superstar musical artist Adele tweeted. “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.”

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Well, Spotify listened.

“Anything for you,” Spotify replied on Twitter.

The change apparently only impacts Spotify Premium accounts. But it isn’t just for Adele or Adele’s latest album. Now, when you browse an album on Spotify, you will see a big and obvious Play button so you can play the album in the order the artist always intended. Spotify later said that it had long intended to roll out this change, which had been “long requested by both users and artists.” You don’t say.

Adele’s request was prompted by the release of her new album, 30, her first in 6 years. Helping matters in her negotiations for Spotify for this change, the first single from this album set a new single-day Spotify streaming record.

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 10 comments

  • Pbike908

    22 November, 2021 - 9:52 am

    <p>I am a big Spotify user and I think this is a good thing. It was confusing to play an album straight through. </p>

  • will

    Premium Member
    22 November, 2021 - 10:10 am

    <p>I never really understood the shuffle play with albums. Where it showed up the worst was any sort of “live” album or any album where one song may flow into the next one. I am honestly surprised this was the default and should have just been a selectable option for users.</p><p><br></p><p>Now, can Adele get Spotify to do something about their podcast management? Maybe a separate app?</p>

    • fishnet37222

      Premium Member
      25 November, 2021 - 10:43 am

      <p>Or at least an option to completely remove any mention of podcasts for those of us who don’t listen to podcasts at all.</p>

  • matsan

    22 November, 2021 - 10:20 am

    <p>Always been playing Spotify on Sonos without shuffling and didn’t even knew about this Shuffle-Gate.</p>

  • angusmatheson

    22 November, 2021 - 10:29 am

    <p>Way to go Adele. Even playlists should be listened to in order. With an album shuffling it is blasphemy!</p>

  • Raynar

    22 November, 2021 - 2:04 pm

    <p>Honestly doesn’t bother me. The majority of my reason to use Spotify is to make playlists. I make my own playlists with the intend to be shuffled regardless. Most shared playlists are designed for both. On the Albums, if the shuffle button is there pfft. People will just hit it, regardless of one extra step. </p>

  • richfrantz

    Premium Member
    22 November, 2021 - 3:40 pm

    <p>This lines up with my listening behavior. (Prime Unlimited) Artist-shuffle, Songs-shuffle, Album-in order</p>

  • brettscoast

    Premium Member
    22 November, 2021 - 7:00 pm

    <p>hmm the timing is interesting given her first album <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">release </span>in quite some time , I do like Adele just sayin. Happy to listen in the correct order of the artist’s preference.</p>

  • scovious

    22 November, 2021 - 10:35 pm

    <p><span style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, would that mean when I design a public park in my city that I should design it with a literal one way procession and tell visitors they must not access the park unless they go my specific way? Is art not all about the interpretation? I can’t help but think this is little more than a way to create attention for this random album being released. Pretty sneaky sis.</span></p>

    • Pierre Masse

      23 November, 2021 - 4:25 pm

      <p>JFC! Go home!</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC