Spotify has released an official statement denying claims made by Drake in a legal document filed last month that Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” had streaming numbers of are artificially exaggerated on the platform.
Drake accused the streaming giant and his own label Universal Music Group of inflating the streaming numbers of Lamar’s songs through his company “Frozen” last month. “Not Like Us” is certainly a scathing satire on him. In addition, he also accused UMG of defamation.
“Spotify has no financial incentive for users to play “Not Like Us” on any of Drake’s tracks. It only spent 500 euros to purchase Spotify for Artists’ tool Marquee on behalf of the song to promote the song in France. According to Variety, Marquee is a A visual advertisement that is exposed to users as a sponsored recommendation.
“Contrary to the allegations in the petition, UMG and Spotify have never entered into any arrangement whereby UMG would charge Spotify a licensing fee 30% lower than its usual licensing fee for “Not Like Us” in exchange for an affirmative recommendation from Spotify.” [“Not Like Us”],” including “users who are searching for other songs and artists.
Additionally, it highlighted its extensive efforts to combat fake streaming and said it had found no evidence to substantiate the allegations in Drake’s petition that an unidentified individual used a bot to artificially remove the song’s title. Streaming volume increased by 30 million.
Universal Music Group previously responded to the claims, saying: “It is offensive and untrue that Universal Music Group would take any action to harm any of its artists. We use the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotions . No amount of contrived and ridiculous legal arguments in this pre-litigation filing can obscure the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.
