Drake says artists who reach Spotify streaming milestones should get “bonuses like athletes”

Drake has suggested that musicians get “bonuses like athletes” when they reach streaming milestones on Spotify. 

• READ MORE: Drake and 21 Savage – ‘Her Loss’ review: exciting prospect marred by lazy songwriting

Yesterday (February 2), it was reported that Drake had surpassed 75billion streams on the platform, making him the first artist in its history to achieve such a milestone. Following the announcement, Drake re-shared a graphic detailing his feat – it includes the Spotify’s logo, but doesn’t appear on any of the platform’s official accounts.

“We should get bonuses like athletes to motivate the future artists to be consistent and competitive,” Drake wrote in the accompanying caption. “[S]o feel free to send me a Lebron sized cheque. I have enough dinner plates.” Though seemingly flippant, Drake’s comments on Spotify royalties have been echoed by other musicians in the past.

In 2020, Neko Case, Nadine Shah, Jack Garratt and Zola Jesus were among the musicians to criticise Spotify CEO Daniel Ek after he said it “wasn’t enough” for artists to “record music once every three to four years”. In response, Case wrote: “so fucking basic. HE keeps our royalties.” The following year, Spotify was accused of paying as little as £0.002 for each stream on its service.

In 2018, Drake broke multiple Spotify records with his album ‘Scorpion’, including for the most streams of an album in a single day (132million). The following month, he became the first artist across multiple platforms to reach over 50billion streams. In 2021, the rapper surpassed his single-day Spotify milestone with ‘Certified Lover Boy’, which accumulated 153million streams within 24 hours of its release.

Drake’s latest collaborative album with 21 Savage, ‘Her Loss’, arrived last November. In a three-star review, NME described the project – a follow up to ‘Honestly, Nevermind’ – as “a braggy, chauvinistic album that’s packed with the kind of cheap misogyny that most of the world’s best rappers ditched years ago.”

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