Adele's Rumored Nov. 20 Album: Sony's Lips Are Zipped, Sources Remain Divided

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The Adele Nov. 20 street date was further fueled by a report in Hits magazine that cited that date and other credible looking details that looked like they could have only come from either on-high in Sony or from Adele’s management.

Sony Music Entertainment’s distribution executives have been inundated with requests for information from the U.S. account base, all wanting to know the answer if the Nov. 20 date is true, sources say. Yet, Sony’s senior management and field staff are either denying the street date or saying they still don’t know if it's coming that day -- or if it's coming at all this year. 

One music merchandiser says he's talked to a lot of people who would and should know the street date because of their positions within Sony or in or around the Adele camp -- and he says they are divided in what they are telling him. Some are saying, “Yes, definitely Nov. 20," while others are saying, "No way that date has been set, we would know if it was set," he says.

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For its part, Sony corporate referred a call to Columbia who referred calls to Adele's independent publicist, who declined to comment.

So overall, the Sony sales and distribution staff mainly appear, as one retailer put it, to be in Sgt. Schultz mode -- the Hogan’s Heroes character who introduced to the popular lexicon the catchphrase, “I know nuffink!”