The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and AC/DC.
These were just a few of the iconic artists whose absence threatened to compromise the integrity of the entire collection when Spotify first attempted to open the ultimate library of popular music.
A decade and a few rival services later, these groups have succumbed to the dominance of the streaming era. The greatest-selling solo act of all time, Garth Brooks – a longtime on-demand holdout whose entire catalogue will eventually be available at the brand-new Amazon Music Unlimited – joined them in late 2016.
Garth may have been the largest artist whose music wasn’t available on all major platforms – and he has since been joined by Thom Yorke, Bob Seger, and Def Lappard – it’s far from a full set for Spotify and company.
Here are a few artists that are yet to make their debuts on a streaming platform:
Artists You Cannot Find on Any Streaming Services
1) The KLF
Perhaps the least shocking holdouts of the digital era are the renowned top 40 anarchists who practically wrote the textbook on defrauding the music industry, publicly destroyed their back catalogue, and stopped recording nearly 25 years ago.
Strangely, the band’s music, including their iconic early-’90s ambient house LP Chill Out, temporarily surfaced on digital and streaming platforms in the beginning of 2013, but was quickly taken down.
2) King Crimson
King Crimson’s most well-known songs don’t exist on demand because they have complicated time signatures and double-digit minute lengths; you can’t even locate a soundtrack one-off or a live performance from the prog-rock legends on Apple or Spotify.
Robert Fripp, a renowned guitarist and the leader of King Crimson, has long been an opponent of digital and streaming. When a few of his songs were briefly made accessible on Spotify, Fripp calculated the costs and incredulously wondered, in a 2009 internet diary entry if this (streaming) was really being presented as the future of the music industry.
3) Suede
Up until a few years ago, the Britpop period’s first breakout band had its 1990s and 2000s music available on a number of streaming platforms.
Since then, it has been mysteriously removed. (Billboard approached the group for comment; at the time of writing this, no response has been received). Under their U.S. alias “The London Suede,” users can still hear the band’s delicious most recent albums, including 2013’s Bloodsports and this year’s Night Thoughts, along with the band’s self-titled debut as well as its 20th Anniversary performance of Dog Man Star.
However, you cannot hear the original release of those albums or the band’s 1996 blockbuster, ‘Coming Up’.
4) Tool
The four studio albums by the platinum-selling alt-metal enigmas of the 1990s and 2000s are still only accessible in physical form; the band has consistently resisted digital release and is unavailable for on-demand listening.
Even though there seems to be one title by the band available on Spotify, do not let the song’s title fool you —”Anti-Nuclear Bacteria” is actually a deep-house song by a Japanese DJ by the name of TooL.
Wrapping Up
To sum up, despite the supremacy of streaming platforms, there are a number of artists who are yet to fully embrace them (and a few that are actively resisting). It seems like it will still be quite some time before the streaming era manages to manifest the clean-sweep victory it is envisioning.