Take That spurn Spotify to stream album exclusively with Google

British group joins Taylor Swift in taking against Spotify

Andrew Griffin
Thursday 27 November 2014 11:24 GMT
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Another high-profile artist has left Spotify, as Take That announced that it had signed an exclusive streaming agreement with rival Google.

Take That join Taylor Swift in publicly refusing to join streaming music Spotify, and have instead signed a deal that will also see them play an album launch party at Google’s offices in London.

The group have teamed up with Google Play Music to enable their new release, called III, to be exclusively streamed for a month from the date it goes on sale on Monday.

The album is already the most pre-ordered album of all time on Amazon.co.uk, overtaking Pink Floyd's Endless River this morning.

The rest of Take That’s albums continue to be available on Spotify.

The Swedish streaming music service has been the subject of controversy in recent weeks, after Taylor Swift took her music off Spotify, citing its low payments to artists. Swift removed her entire back catalogue from the firm's service just before releasing her latest album 1989.

Announcing the deal, Take That said the exclusive streaming on Google would be a deluxe version of the album and would include "three bonus tracks that will not be available on any other streaming or download service".

The group - Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen - are also jostling to be number one in the UK singles chart this week, just a few sales behind the current chart-topper Band Aid 30's new version of Do They Know It's Christmas?. The track, called These Days, is just 1,500 copies behind the charity single according to midweek data released by the Official Chart Company.

Jason Orange left the group in September.

Additional reporting by PA

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