When it comes to streaming numbers, it seems Drake’s only competition is himself.
According to an exclusive report by the Verge, More Life was streamed 300 million times on Apple Music in its first week, completely obliterating the amount of streams he racked in with VIEWS. For those who don’t remember, the 2016 album was streamed about 250 million times just a week after it debuted exclusively on Apple Music. The increase is especially notable when you consider More Lifewasn’t strictly available on one streaming service.
The highly anticipated playlist was also released by one of Apple Music’s biggest competitors: Spotify. And although some would assume having the project available on several services would split the numbers, More Life actually set multiple records for both companies. It broke Spotify’s record for single-day artist streams with 76,355,041 as well as its first-day album streams with 61,302,082. When it comes to Apple Music, not only did the project set a new bar for first-week streams, it also set a record with 89.9 million streams in its first 24 hours. According to forecasts by Republic Records, More Life is expected to be streamed around 600 million times worldwide.
It’s a pretty impressive feat, one that Apple Music attributes to OVO Sound Radio.
“It’s the biggest radio station in the world. There’s no way you’re going to find another station that has as many concurrent listeners and audience-wise as Beats 1, period,” Larry Jackson, Apple Music’s head of content, told the Verge. “If you rewind back to July of 2015, and those records that rolled out like ‘Back to Back,’—‘Hotline Bling’ debuted on OVO Sound Radio first, ‘Charged Up’ debuted there first—all these records debuted in a space that was really still new and nascent, and [Drake] made it his own. You can glance over it, but we created this idea that was really great for him, and he took advantage of it.”
