Taylor Swift, Adele, and now Coldplay? Is Spotify in trouble?

It started with Taylor Swift. In November of 2014, Taylor Swift caused an uproar amongst Spotify users when she pulled her music from the popular streaming service. Then last month, Adele decided to not put her first album in 4 years, 25, on any free streaming services at all. And most recently, Coldplay announced that they will not be adding their new album, A Head Full of Dreams, to free streaming services immediately either.

Popular artists are pulling their songs from Spotify to boycott their free streaming tier service where users can listen to music for free with ad interruptions. Paid streaming services such as Apple Music have these albums available today.

Spotify has a lot to think about moving forward. If more and more artists follow the lead of Taylor Swift, Adele, and Coldplay, Spotify could be in big trouble. Keeping a free tier of streaming is fine, but they’re going to have to find some sort of way to limit how much users can listen to, or make some songs “Premium Only”, etc. All I know is that it’s current business plan is driving away popular artists which will, in turn, drive away subscribers.

With Apple Music becoming Spotify’s biggest competitor, it might be time to think of a new gameplan. Apple Music is offering more and more incentive to switch over to their new streaming service. By having the above artists’ newest albums and their brand new radio service, Apple Music is becoming the more attractive option for a streaming service. If Apple added Podcasts to the music app, I can imagine that the popularity of Apple Music will explode driving Spotify into the ground.

Spotify, it’s your move.