25 is estimated to have nearly 20 million in worldwide sales since its debut in November. The British songstress was the biggest streaming hold-out of 2015, and her album had such a massive impact that it was the subject of its own special section in Nielsen’s year-in-review. The singles had been shared individually on streaming services (her track “Hello” has 537 million streams just on Spotify), but this appears to be the first time that the album will stream in its entirety.
Following on Adele’s example, 2016 has been a big year in terms of artists pursuing more personalized paths in how they choose to distribute their work. But rather than withholding from streaming, this new trend is exploring how to stream an album while adhering to creative visions and financial goals. Service-specific exclusives have become popular, with big release’s such as Drake’s Views, Beyoncé’s Lemonade, Rihanna’s ANTI, and Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo all being linked to one streaming platform for a varying amount of time.