Taylor Swift pulled her entire back catalogue from Spotify late last year because the music streaming service refused to bend on one key policy: all music should be available to its 80 million-plus ad-supported users, as well as its 20 million-plus Premium subscribers.
Swift disagreed with that notion, and she yanked her hugely popular 1989 album from Spotify and other streaming services in protest.
Now the Wall Street Journal claims that the service may consider pulling a volte-face, with artists such as Adele, Beyoncé and Coldplay testing Spotify's resolve. The company confirmed that it will hold discussions with artists, the first of which has already taken place with Coldplay.
In a statement to Music Ally, Spotify confirmed the talks with Chris Martin and the rest of the band, but also reiterated its strong belief in its current business model:
"We are 100% committed to our model because we believe that a free, ad-supported tier combined with a more robust premium tier is the best way to deliver music to fans, create value for artists and songwriters, and grow the industry.
"In that context, we explored a wide range of promotional options for the new Coldplay album and ultimately decided, together with management, that Coldplay and its fans would best be served with the full album on both free and premium this Friday."
However, Spotify needs to change something soon if it is to capture the hottest music from some of the biggest artists in the world. Last month, for example, Adele withheld her new album 25 from Spotify and other streaming services, which may ultimately have helped her sell even more physical and digital copies, and smash several industry records in the process.
