No New Adele Album Until at Least 2015

— October 11, 2014 0 4

By BEN SISARIO / ArtsBeat/The New York Times

Adele fans will have to wait until at least next year for a new album, according to a statement from her label tucked in a new financial report.

Speculation has been running high for months that Adele — whose 2011 album “21” sold more than 25 million copies around the world, defying seemingly every rule of the depressed modern music business — might release a new record this year. In May, on the eve of her 26th birthday, Adele sent a cryptic message on Twitter saying, “Bye bye 25… See you again later in the year,” which some fans interpreted as indicating a new album by year’s end. Some of her previous collaborators, like the songwriter and producer Ryan Tedder, have also said they are working on new music with her. But nothing new has been confirmed.

Adele won six Grammys in 2012 after releasing her last album, “21.” Paul Buck/European Pressphoto Agency

The most definitive statement so far about Adele’s plans is in the latest annual financial report by Adele’s label, XL Recordings, which was filed on Thursday with regulators in Britain, where the company is based. Buried alongside the news that XL — whose other acts include Vampire Weekend and the xx — made $15 million in net profit on almost $61 million in revenue in 2013, was the following sentence:

“There will not be a further new release by Adele during 2014 and consequently there will be a fall in XL’s turnover and profits.”

The lack of an Adele album will have consequences for other companies as well. Columbia Records, a unit of Sony Music Entertainment, has distributed her last two albums in the United States and throughout Latin America, and music sales over all have been on decline. Only five albums released in the last year have sold more than one million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and only one of them — Disney’s “Frozen” soundtrack” — has sold more than 3 million.

A spokeswoman for the label declined further comment. XL is half-owned by Beggars Group, a mini-conglomerate of independent labels.

Reference: ArtsBeat/The New York Times By BEN SISARIO