Can Adele save the music industry, or just slow its demise?

News that Adele is launching a new album following a nearly four-year hiatuscame withsweeping headlines hailing theBritish songstressasthe music industry's long-awaited saviour.

Hopes are high for25, the third album from the Grammy-winning artist, due to be releasedNov. 20."Adele is here to save the music industry," pronounced Fortune. "Music industry breathes sigh of relief," saidU.K. newspaper theIndependent.

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It's a big burden to lay on one woman's shoulders, but the hype is not unjustified. In a changing industry,Adele has consistentlybucked the trend and convinced people, en masse, to shell out their hard-earned cash on her music.

Her last album, 2011's 21, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, making it thebest-selling album of the decade, according to theInternational Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

Already her single Hello has surpassed the record for digital downloads, defying the odds in an era where music sales are dwindling as audiophiles turn to subscription streaming services Rdio and Spotify.

The comeback track sold 1.11 million digital songs in its first week, demolishing Flo Rida's previous record of 636,000 for Right Round.

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"It's really incredible. You've got a market that's shifting dramatically to streaming, that is not as robust from a sales standpoint than it was before, and you get something that breaks the record not only by just a little bit, but really crushes it," said David Bakula, spokesman for Nielsen Entertainment, which tracks media consumption across all spectrums.

"I think that just goes to show the pent-up demand for Adele's music."

According Nielsen data,digital downloads have been on the decline for thelast three years, and CDs even longer.

In 2013alone,overall album sales in the U.S.saw an11.2 per cent drop,CD sales were down15 per cent, digital album sales declined9.4 per cent and digital song sales went down12.5 per cent.Music streaming, on the other hand, was up54 per cent.

So what's so special about Adele?

'Universal appeal'

Mark Mulligan, a music industry analyst for the U.K.-based MIDiAResearch, credits her "universal appeal."

Music aficionados and media-savvy youthare among her many listeners, he says, but her fan base is "very much rooted in the mainstream, the mass market."

"Adele is pretty much unlike any other artist out there. Herlast album was an anomaly in and of itself. It was an album that managed to transcend different groups of music fans,transcend ages and demographics in a way that most artists don't, particularly to that scale," Mulligan told CBC News.

Heryounger fans stream her singles the video for Hello already beat therecordfor most single-day views on Vevobut plenty of other people also download her albums and buy her CDs, a medium not to be discounted, says Mulligan.

"Across the globe, CDs still account for the majority of music sales," he said."ForAdele, it's probably Walmart and Best Buythat are more important,rather than Spotifyand Apple Music."

The death of the album?

So can Adele save the music industry, as the headlines suggest?

Don't count on it, saysMulligan,who recently penned a blog post titled, "Will Adele Be The Last Hurrah Of The Album Era?""I'd be too harsh to call it a stay of execution, but it just delays the inevitable," he says.

"The industry isin this massive transition, and if Adele's album sells incredibly well, that isn't a sign of the health of the industry. It's almost like amuscle spasm of a dyingcorpse."

A decade ago,it was still the norm for successfulmusicians to sell millions of copies of theiralbums, even with the rise ofNapsterand online piracy,Mulligan says."Now,that's becoming the exception."

"There might be one or two more,but we're seeing the last days of" the music album,he said. "They're not going to disappear as a creative construct and they're not going to disappear as a consumption format, but as a mainstream sales vehicle, those days are definitely numbered."

'Legacy artists'

There are, of course, othermega-starswhosell millions of albums. Taylor Swift's1989has sold a more than 8.9 million copies since its 2014 release.Beyonc'sself-titled 2013album sold more than five million copies within a year of being released exclusively throughiTunes.

But artists with the power to sell albums at these numbers are getting fewer and farther between.

"For me, those arelegacy artists," AniJohnson, a professor of music business and management at theBerklee College of Music in Boston, told CBC News.

Johnson said that, like most people,she casually streams and downloads music regularly,but when she buys an albumit has to be something special.Beyoncand21 are both in her collection.

"I purchase those albums because of the lyrics. Their music speaks to me. Ican connect to where they are in their life to my life, theirpain, their joy, and I want to carry that artist with me," she says.

Johnson said she'sdefinitely going to dish out the money for Adele's latest as there issomething about thesoulful singer that makes her stand out from the pack.

"Pop has itsplace, but she is more about life and life experiences," Johnson said."She's legitimate, a star in in her own right. She's basically a fully formed woman standing in her power."