Adele’s request led Spotify to hide the album shuffle button in November 2021. She argued that albums are sequenced to tell a story and that listeners should begin with the opening track rather than have shuffle presented as the main album-play option.
The change followed the release of Adele’s album 30. On November 21, 2021, she thanked Spotify publicly after the service changed the prominent album control so that pressing the main play button started an album in order. Spotify responded that Adele was right about the importance of honoring an artist’s intended sequence.
The change did not permanently eliminate shuffle from Spotify. Listeners could still activate shuffle during playback, and the company later introduced separate Play and Shuffle buttons for Premium users in 2022. The episode is often overstated as Spotify “banning” shuffle; the key change was hiding or demoting the album-page shuffle control, not removing the feature everywhere.