News August 20, 2018

Nicki Minaj slams Spotify and Travis Scott after #2 US chart debut

Nicki Minaj is furious at both Spotify and Travis Scott, accusing the streaming service of treating her unjustly after charting at #2 on the Billboard charts.

Over the weekend, Billboard announced this week’s chart positions, with Travis Scott charting at #1 with his recent album, Astroworld, while Nicki Minaj’s Queen followed closely behind at #2. As Pitchfork notes, Astroworld managed to sell 205,000 equivalent units, with 78,000 coming from traditional sales, while Queen sold 185,000 equivalent units, with 78,000 from traditional sales

However, Minaj isn’t too happy with the result, accusing Spotify and Travis Scott for her record charting lower than she believed it should have.

Taking to Twitter, Nicki Minaj shared a series of Tweets blaming Travis Scott for selling “season pass” bundles for his upcoming tour, a move which she believed inflated sales numbers for his record due to their varied inclusion of albums and tickets.

“Travis sold over 50K of these,” she explained. “With no requirement of redeeming the album! With no dates for a tour, etc. I spoke to him. He knows he doesn’t have the #1 album this week.”

Minaj also claimed Billboard may look at changing the rules of their chart in response to the controversial rollout of Scott’s album, which included heavy promotion from Scott’s partner Kylie Jenner on her social media accounts.

https://twitter.com/NICKIMINAJ/status/1031278618561921025

My first album sold 400K. No one is doing that with debut albums now. So I’m so grateful. I lost out on 12 hours of sales and did 200K in one week after I was supposedly cancelled. I bit my tongue last #QueenRadio but I won’t On Tuesday. I love you guys so much
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018

I looked at the numbers the Carters, Kanye, Nas, etc recently did. Travis sold 200K in his first week of clothes alone. I spoke to him last night & he said he’s been selling clothes b4 the music. Billboard says they’ll change the rules cuz of this, so it should be changed now!
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018

I put my blood sweat & tears in writing a dope album only for Travis Scott to have Kylie Jenner post a tour pass telling ppl to come see her & Stormi. lol. Im actually laughing. #Queen broke the record of being number 1 in 86 countries. Thank Jesus & thank you to my fans.
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018

Nicki Minaj soon set her sights on Spotify, accusing the streaming service of treating her unfairly in the lead-up to her album’s release. As Minaj explained on Twitter, Queen was debuted on her Apple Music radio show, a short time ahead of its official release date due to some miscommunication.

Despite being “one of the top Spotify artists of all time”, Minaj claimed that Spotify behaved in a vindictive manor for premiering her music before it was on their service, taking away some of her album promotion, while continuing to heavily promote artists such as Drake, whose face recently polluted the home page of every Spotify user.

“Spotify put Drake’s face on every playlist but told me they’d have to teach me a lesson for playing my music 10 mins early on #QueenRadio,” she wrote on Twitter. “Even tho they’ve been giving away my music for free for years & I am one of the top Spotify artists of all time.”

“Spotify had to teach me a lesson but rewarded the man who has had an Apple radio show the longest; inadvertently helping the Apple platform the most.”

Spotify put drake’s face on every playlist but told me they’d have to teach me a lesson for playing my music 10 mins early on #QueenRadio. Even tho they’ve been giving away my music for free for years & I am one of the top Spotify artists of all time.
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018

My music went up on Apple so I played it. I assumed it was on Spotify & Tidal at the same time. Spotify said that Apple tweeted fans advising #Queen was up & therefore they had to teach me a lesson. But PRAISE BE TO GOD!!!!!!
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018

My label didn’t want to defend me for fear of Spotify trying to teach Ariana a “lesson” too! https://t.co/1dAdbcbWVd
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018

While neither Spotify or Travis Scott have responded to Nicki Minaj’s claims, it remains to be seen whether or not Billboard will indeed change the way that they measure album sales in the future, or if Spotify did indeed attempt to ‘teach Nicki a lesson’ for premiering her music early. Whatever the case, we’re sure that both artists will continue to dominate the top of the charts for the next few weeks at least.