Coldplay’s new album won’t be on Spotify when it’s released

Alongside the big announcement that Coldplay will headline the Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show, it’s also being reported that the band’s soon-to-be-released album A Head Full of Dreams won’t be available to stream on Spotify. The album goes on sale this Friday, but The Wall Street Journal claims it “won’t be immediately available on Spotify,” with the service’s free listening tier reportedly to blame for the band’s decision to withhold it. Other music services that are paid-only, such as Apple Music and perhaps Tidal, are expected to offer the album for streaming on day one.

Coldplay’s decision to keep its latest music off Spotify, at least temporarily, follows similar moves from Taylor Swift and more recently Adele, who is breaking sales records with her new release, 25. The band had kept mum on its streaming plans prior to today’s report by the Journal, but it’s yet more bad news for Spotify as the company attempts to maintain its position atop the competitive streaming music business.

The caveat that the album won’t “immediately” be there leaves room for it to show up on Spotify a few weeks or months down the line. That’s exactly the approach Coldplay took for its previous two albums, Ghost Stories and Mylo Xlyloto, and now again fans will need to go elsewhere — or maybe even buy the album — to hear it on Friday.