A very interesting stat: Spotify says Drake’s music has been streamed more than 10bn times on its platform. He is the first artist in history to reach the milestone.
According to Spotify’s previously published average per-stream payout rate of $0.007, that equates to over $70m generated for Drake and his music business partners including Young Money / Cash Money / Republic Records.
However, that payout stat was announced by Spotify over three years ago, and has since been removed from its Spotify Artists website.
Industry pundits tell MBW that a more realistic per-stream rate on Spotify today – across both its free and subscription tier – would be $0.005, paid out across both publishing and recorded music rights.
That would mean Drake has comfortably generated in excess of $50m on the service to date.
Spotify proudly distributed news of the 10bn milestone to media at the end of last week.
A spokesperson said: “Drake continues to break Spotify records, including his own, and is now the number one streamed artist and the first to reach over 10 billion streams.
“Congratulations to Drake on this milestone, and thank you for the music, from all your fans on Spotify.”
The figure is given further significance by two key facts:
- Long-awaited Drake playlist More Life landed on streaming services yesterday (March 18). Although described as a ‘mixtape’ rather than an album, it’s a new set of songs from arguably the biggest contemporary artist on earth. And, unlike last year’s record-breaking LP Views, More Life is available on Spotify and other streaming platforms from day one – rather than a windowed Apple Music/iTunes exclusive;
- Last year, Apple trumpeted the fact that Drake’s Views had reached a billion cumulative streams on its platform. Soon after, a single track from the album – One Dance – surpassed a billion streams on Spotify on its own.
Much of More Life is understood to have been recorded in the UK – which helps explain why many of the hottest grime MCs from the market, including Giggs and Skepta, are featured on its tracks.
Other collaborators on More Life include Kanye West, Young Thug, Travis Scott and Jorja Smith.Music Business Worldwide
