Bjork Says Putting Her Album on Spotify ‘Just Seems Insane’
It’s been nearly a month since Bjork rush released her latest album, Vulnicura, after it was leaked online two months ahead of schedule. Now, she’s shared her thoughts on how technology has affected her music, including the album leak, her choice to not make it available on Spotify and more.
When Vulnicura suddenly arrived online, the Icelandic singer-songwriter happily released the album only a couple of days later. In retrospect, Bjork says the experience was very much in the same vein of the album’s inspiration, which was derived from heartbreak -- she even called it a “strange kind of blessing.”
“At that point I had had two years of things happening to me that I didn’t want to happen to me, so my Buddhist muscle had been well exercised,” she told Fast Company in an interview. “‘Okay, another thing has happened to me that I didn’t want to happen to me! I have no choice but to deal with it.’ So in a strange way it was in the spirit of the album in that you don’t have a choice.”
While she may be taking the leak in stride, Bjork is still hesitant to make the album available for streaming on Spotify, saying that it “just seems insane.”
“To work on something for two or three years and then just, ‘Oh, here it is for free,’” she said. “It’s not about the money; it’s about respect, you know? Respect for the craft and the amount of work you put into it.”
When asked if she fears where technology is leading the music industry, the singer argued that it’s all a matter of how you choose to use it.
“There’s always that fear of the tools taking over,” she said. “You have to define the morality of it: Are you going to destroy with it or are you going to be creative with it? It’s a choice.”
Although, the singer confessed that’s she’s just as prone to a healthy Netflix binge as the next person.“I’m not saying I always succeed. Definitely not. I’m as guilty as anyone of collapsing in front of Netflix after a long week. [Laughs] My daughter and I watch Adventure Time a lot.”
As for the future of the album as a format, Bjork said it depends on the content. “I think there’s a reason why [albums are] 45 minutes,” she explained. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that movies are the length they are. It’s a certain storytelling-by-the-fire, cavemen, DNA instinct that feels really natural.”
“A lot of the songs I listen to, I don’t want to hear them as albums,” she added. “They’re pop songs or whatever. And then there are other ones where I want to sit down and listen to a story.”