Drake’s no-exclusive move pays off as More Life takes him to 10b Spotify stream record

Drake’s new album More Life, which dropped on Saturday, is not an Apple Music exclusive, as he earlier suggested. It is also available on Spotify, Tidal and Amazon.

In an interview in January with Cal Cast, the 30-year old rap superstar said, “It’s something I’m doing in conjunction with Apple. Usually, in between albums, artists would do a mixtape but I’m doing a playlist with Apple.

“It’s sort of the same concept. It’s not an album but it is a body of work I’m creating, just to bridge the gap between my major releases, to keep people excited, give people new music, let people know I’m still hungry.”

The Hotline Bling hitmaker has had a close relationship with Apple Music since it launched in mid-2015.

There have been two exclusive album releases, exclusive music videos and a short film, TV ads with Taylor Swift, and tour sponsorship.

His Apple Music OVO Sound radio show allows him to break new music. As far back as October, he was dropping tracks Two Birds One Stone, Fake Love and Sneakin’ on the show.

But it’s not surprising that Drizzy, currently winding up the European leg of his Boy Meets World tour, should want to have his music featured on other services – especially Spotify. Possibly it was his record label’s decision.

Meanwhile, Spotify has announced that Drake is the first artist to smash the 10 billion streams mark on the platform.

The bulk of the streams were from Views, the most streamed album on Spotify, with 3 billion streams on the platform. The chart-topping single One Dance also reached 1.15 billion streams, making it its most streamed single in 2016.

Hotline Bling, Too Good and Controlla are also favourites with Spotify listeners.

It’ll be interesting to see how More Life fares with streaming audiences. It was originally to be released in December but seems to have been finalised only this month.

At the end of a show in Hamburg, Germany, on March 10, Drake told the audience, “I know it’s taken me awhile, but I’m going to the hotel tonight to finish [More Life] so I can give it to you as soon as possible. So I hope you’re ready to enjoy some new music.”

He recently said in a radio interview: “I’m doing it to be remembered as a forward thinker. I want to be remembered… as an emotion-evoking artist”.