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Paul McCartney pulls tracks from streaming services

Paul McCartney follows bands such as AC/DC and Coldplay in snubbing streaming services, pulling all his music from Rhapsody and others.

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Greg Sandoval Former Staff writer
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. Based in New York, Sandoval is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at @sandoCNET.
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Greg Sandoval
2 min read

Paul McCartney has become the latest artist to just say no to streaming.

'Kisses on the Bottom,' the latest release from Paul McCartney, will not be distributed through any streaming services. Hear Music

McCartney pulled his music from services such as Rhapsody, a broader move than some of the high-profile acts who have declined to license their latest releases to streaming sites recently, including Coldplay, Tom Waits, and Adele.

Not only has he blocked streaming services from licensing his songs, he's decided to yank his entire music collection from streaming outlets, according to Digital Music News. (Spotify has contacted CNET to say that McCartney first removed his music from that site in 2010.)

A spokeswoman for Rhapsody confirmed that McCartney has indeed removed his music from that service. The Beatles, it should be noted, have never made their music available on the streaming services.

Artists have recently started complaining that these sites don't pay well enough for the use of their music. Spotify, Rhapsody, MOG, and others deny that, but they also argue that their services are relatively new and that their revenue and subscribers continue to grow. Payouts to artists will also continue to increase, they claim.

That message may have started to resonate with some acts. In October, CNET broke the news that Coldplay would not make its album "Mylo Xyloto," available via streaming services. However, according to the Rhapsody spokesperson, the album is now available for streaming.

One more note: The artists who have rejected most streaming services still seem to enjoy a good relationship with iTunes. McCartney is streaming his upcoming concert on iTunes and the Beatles iconic catalog is available there for download. Coldplay fans couldn't stream its songs from "Mylo Xyloto" when it debuted, but the album was available at iTunes.

So these music acts aren't totally anti-digital. Just selectively so.

Correction 10:48 a.m. PT: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated when Paul McCartney removed his music from Spotify. The former Beatle pulled his songs from that service in 2010.