Drake sets new Spotify & Apple Music, streaming records

Drake set new sales records with his new instant-platinum album Scorpion which hit the market last Friday (June 29).

The Canadian rapper was the world’s best selling act in 2017 and his album Views set a new record of 385 million streams in its first week of release.

Scorpion set opening day records on Spotify and Apple Music – and with all the streaming services factored in, could set a new record of one billion streams in its first seven days by the end of this week.

The 25-track double record – in which the performer reveals he is a single father and responds to his apparent beef with Pusha-T – runs for one hour and 29 minutes.

It boasts guests as JAY-Z, Nicki Minaj, Ty Dolla $ign and, posthumously, Michael Jackson.

On Spotify, Scorpion generated a mind-blowing 132 million streams globally (80.5 million in the US), after initially streaming at an average rate of 10 million an hour.

The previous record was Post Malone’s beerbongs & bentleys’ 78.7 streams worldwide and 47.9 million in the US.

Variety reported that Spotify worked at these figures in with its Scorpion SZN promotion, which marks the first time a single artist has taken over multiple (nearly 30) Spotify playlists on the same day.

Drake is on the cover of RapCaviar, Beast Mode, Today’s Top Hits, Morning Commute and even ones where his music isn’t included.

The promotion was in partnership with Republic, Cash Money, and Young Money Records.

Nonstop is now the most-streamed track in a day with 9.3 million globally (5.75 million in the US) replacing J. Cole’s KOD.

Over at Apple Music, Scorpion broke Drake’s own record with 170 million in its 24 hours and controlling the first Top 25 spots on the platform.

Apple said it broke its first day global and US stream milestones.

The previous record for Apple was held by Drake’s More Life which itself had set a new record with 89.9 million.

Even within hours of release, Scorpion was the most-streamed in 92 countries.

Apple Music’s promotion of Scorpion included launching a website for fans to style their own photo into the Scorpion album cover art and expanding Drake name-checks on Siri.

In addition, Drake is also the biggest seller of digital singles, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced on Friday.

His 142 million digital single sales units puts him ahead of Rihanna and Taylor Swift.

The RIAA calculates one equivalent song unit as equal to one digital song sale or 150 on-demand audio and/or video streams.

(One equivalent album unit, is equal to: one album sale, 10 tracks sold from an album, or 1,500 on-demand audio and/or video streams from an album).

The track I’m Upset has given Drake his record-extending 64th Top 10 hit on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart.

Twitter reported that the release of the album sparked three million tweets in 24 hours, as fans exchanged responses to the 25 tracks.

The most tweeted-about tracks:

1. Emotionless (Side A)
2. In My Feelings (Side B)
3. 8 Out of 10 (Side A)
4. Jaded (Side B)
5. That’s How You Feel (Side B)