阿黛爾不再拒絕流媒體 Streaming services dance to Adele's tune

Adele, the biggest-selling recording artist of the past decade, will breathe new life into the ailing album format later this month with 25, her new release, which is on course to top the charts for the year.

過去10年專輯銷量最高的唱片藝人阿黛爾(Adele)本月將爲陷入困境的專輯市場帶來新的生機，她的新專輯《25》即將登上今年排行榜榜首。（編者注：根據最新的報道，阿黛爾的新專輯《25》發行後首周的銷售量在英國和美國都打破了以往的紀錄。）

But as consumers embrace streaming services from Spotify and Apple, she has left music executives in the dark over her digital distribution plans for the album, the hotly anticipated follow up to 21, which was the biggest-selling title of 2011 and 2012.

但隨着消費者青睞Spotify和蘋果(Apple)的流媒體服務，她沒有讓音樂界高管知曉該專輯的數字發行計劃。備受期待的《25》是《21》的後續之作，後者是2011年和2012年的銷量冠軍。

The singer is leaning towards “windowing” the album — making it available on CD or as a paid download for a period of time, before putting it on streaming services, according to people familiar with the situation.

知情人士稱，阿黛爾正傾向於爲這張專輯“開窗”，這意味着該專輯將先在一段時間內通過CD或者付費下載提供，然後再放到流媒體服務上。

This would be the same strategy she employed for 21, which was initially kept off streaming services to maximise retail sales.

這將是她曾對《21》運用的同樣策略，後者最初沒有放到流媒體服務上，以便儘可能地擴大零售銷售。

21 sold more than 30m copies worldwide — and spent 23 weeks at the top of the charts in the UK — during a period of significant decline for albums. In the US, the total number of CDs sold fell from 767m in 2004 to 141m in 2014, according to figures from the Recording Industry Association of America. Sales of albums via digital download have increased over that period, but not enough to offset the decline, rising from 4.6m in 2004 to 117.6m.

在唱片銷售大幅下降期間，《21》在全球銷售了逾3000萬張唱片，在英國排行榜榜首盤踞了23周。美國唱片業協會(Recording Industry Association of America)的數據顯示，在美國，CD總銷量已從2004年的7.67億張下降至2014年的1.41億張。同期通過數字下載的專輯銷量有所增長（從2004年的460萬次升至1.176億次），但還不足以抵消總量的下降。

21 was made available to stream on Spotify 18 months after the album’s release. The star’s stance this time appears to be shifting: while she is unlikely to put the full album available on Spotify immediately, its first single “Hello” was made available to stream last week on the same day it went on sale.

發行18個月後，《21》被放到了Spotify流媒體服務上。阿黛爾這次的立場似乎有所轉變：儘管她不太可能將全部專輯立即放上去，但該專輯首支單曲《你好》(Hello)在上週銷售當天就被放到了Spotify上。

The track is on course to break the record for the largest number of downloads in a single week and has been streamed more than 47m times on Spotify. The video has been viewed more than 180m times on YouTube.

該專輯即將打破單週下載量最多的紀錄，它在Spotify上的播放超過4700萬次。該專輯在YouTube上已被觀看逾1.8億次。

Taylor Swift, whose album 1989 was released last year, pulled her catalogue from Spotify when the streaming service refused to take her music from its free tier.

去年發行《1989》專輯的泰勒斯威夫特(Taylor Swift)從Spotify上撤掉了自己的曲目，原因是Spotify拒絕將其音樂撤出免費類別。

Mark Mulligan, a music industry analyst with Midia Research, said Adele was unlikely to take a similar approach because her audience was broader than the typical Spotify listener — which is typically younger — so the availability of her singles on the service will not dent full album sales or downloads. “It would be a safer bet [for the new album] to not be on Spotify but it won’t be a huge risk if it is,” he said.

MIDiA Research的音樂行業分析師馬克穆里根(Mark Mulligan)表示，阿黛爾不太可能採取類似舉措，因爲她的聽衆比典型的Spotify聽衆（通常較爲年輕）更廣泛一些，因此她在該服務上的單曲不會影響整個專輯的銷售或下載。他說：“（對新專輯而言）不放在Spotify上將是更安全的押注，但如果放了，風險也不會太大。”

Sony Music, which will release the record in the US, declined to comment on its plans for the album. Spotify and Apple Music also declined to comment.

將在美國發行該專輯的索尼音樂(Sony Music)拒絕就其發行計劃置評。Spotify和蘋果音樂(Apple Music)也拒絕置評。

Downloads and new income from streaming services will lift global digital revenues from music above revenue from physical sales for the first time in 2015, according to a new report from Ovum, the consultancy.

諮詢公司Ovum發佈的一份新報告顯示，來自流媒體服務的下載和新收入，將會讓全球音樂市場的數字收入在2015年首次超過實體銷售。