Drake’s playlist, More Life, has received 300 million streams in its first week on Apple Music. Republic Records estimates Drake’s latest project to have around 600 million streams worldwide.
Drake’s More Life has already surpassed his previous album, Views, in the first week of its release. Apple Music told The Verge that Drake’s Views got around 250 million streams in its first week in 2016.
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Ed Sheeran still holds the title for the biggest first week for any album on a single service with his release of Divide, which streamed 375 million times on Spotify in its first week.
Drake’s More Life did set a record for Apple. The playlist had 89.9 million streams in its first 24 hours on Apple’s streaming service, which is over 33 million streams ahead of Divide.
The Apple Music Team dedicated the success of More Life to the power of Beats 1 and OVO Sound Radio.
Drake has shown his loyalty to Apple Music since the app launched in 2015. The rapper launched a series of exclusive songs and albums though Apple Music and on OVO Sound Radio.
Drake’s co-manager, Oliver El-Khatib, hosts the More Life debut on the most recent episode, which airs on Beats 1.
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Larry Jackson, the head of Apple Music’s content, recalled how successful Drake’s releases of “Hotline Bling” and “Back To Back” were when they debuted on OVO Sound Radio in July of 2015.
“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.”
The head of Beats 1, Zane Lowe, commented that Drake doesn’t rush his work and that has helped him to chill out a bit.
“I mean what he’s taught me just in terms of the parameters of broadcasting is remarkable. I remember when we were first waiting for those shows to come in [ OVO Sound Radio ] and they’d come in 20 minutes late, and I’d be freaking out because we’d run over our start time. Now the show comes in an hour late and we’re all just like cool.”
Lowe continued to say that Drake totally knew “what he’s doing” and that he definitely knew his audience.
“The best thing that anyone — including myself — can do is get out of the way.”
Drake is probably one of the most notable names in the music industry right now, and Lowe said the rapper is defining the era.
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“If you’re going to have an era or moment where you can look back and say that the experience got better, or the music sounded better, or we shifted gears into new technology and made it work, it has to be spearheaded by the artist, always.
“If you look back at any great era, it’s always one or two artists that got it, and embraced it and took it and made it their own, and that’s how they owned that era. Drake has done that, and his camp have done that, and that’s why it’s such an exciting time.”
Apple Music has been successful due to the fact that they are able to capitalize on the app’s ability to debut albums live across the globe. However, More Life was actually not an Apple Music exclusive.
“We didn’t have Drake’s album exclusive, but it was fantastic what worked out.
“Whoever has a great idea we like to follow it and execute it. [Drake] had the idea, we kind of just built and supported around him.”
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The executives at Apple Music told The Verge that their key to success has been working with artists like Drake to ensure that the company stays ahead of the game.
“These [streaming] services cannot be utilities, it’s not enough. They have to be — they almost have to make music a verb — it has to just move. And that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Are you surprised that Drake’s new playlist More Life broke Apple Music’s most-streamed-in-a-24-hour-period record, despite the fact that the music release was not Apple exclusive? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
[Featured Image by Justin Sullivan/ Getty Images]
