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On Monday (Nov. 25), Drake leveled severe allegations that Common Music Group used bots, payola and misleading promoting techniques to inflate the streaming numbers for Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” Predictably, a spokesperson has since denied the claims.
“The suggestion that UMG would do something to undermine any of its artists is offensive and unfaithful. We make use of the best moral practices in our advertising and promotional campaigns. No quantity of contrived and absurd authorized arguments on this pre-action submission can masks the truth that followers select the music they need to hear,” a consultant for the corporate informed Billboard.
The publication additional famous that Spotify, who was accused of licensing “Not Like Us” at “drastically decreased charges” than regular, declined to touch upon the scenario.
In Drake’s preliminary pre-action petition, he claimed UMG “launched a marketing campaign to govern and saturate the streaming companies and airwaves.” His authorized group at Frozen Moments LLC additional argued that the music company violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
“UMG’s schemes have been motivated, at the very least partially, by the need of executives at Interscope [Records] to maximise their very own income,” Drake’s attorneys said. “Executives at Interscope have been incentivized to maximise the monetary success of Interscope by the promotion of ‘Not Like Us’ and its revitalizing affect on the artist’s prior recording catalog.”
The claims do name into query how Drake’s relationship with UMG, Spotify and even different streaming companies like Apple shall be affected going ahead. Again in August, he debuted singles like “Housekeeping Is aware of,” “Blue Inexperienced Crimson” and the Younger Thug and 21 Savage-assisted “It’s Up” by his burner Instagram account, @plottttwistttttt. Regardless of all three data doubtlessly with the ability to profit from a correct rollout, they didn’t attain DSPs till days later.
As for “Not Like Us,” the document is vying in 5 completely different classes on the 67th Annual Grammy Awards, which is ready to happen in February 2025