Drake Shatters His Own Music Streaming Record

Drake’s “More Life” has shattered the single album US streaming record — as it was played 385 million times in its debut week.

The Canadian rapper shattered the previous record — which he held with his 2016 album, “Views” — by 57 percent, according to Nielsen Music.

“More Life” also generated 505,000 album equivalents in its first week — enough for it to debut atop the Billboard 200 chart.

An album equivalent is equal to 10 single-track sales or 1,500 on-demand song streams.

“The stunning number of streams is the result of Drake’s being an artist at the top of his game,” said Dave Bakula, SVP of analytics at Nielsen Entertainment. “But it’s also a function of all streaming services growing like crazy.”

Indeed, on-demand audio streams increased 76 percent in 2016, according to Nielsen.

That gain allowed the industry to post a 3 percent increase in overall volume, despite declines of 20 percent in digital-album units and 14 percent in physical albums.

Drake’s “More Life” joins Ed Sheeran’s “Divide” as the month’s two blockbuster albums, although their respective fans have distinct buying habits.

Sheeran’s consumers like to own, resulting in first- week album sales of 322,000 — 43 percent more than Drake’s 225,000.

Drake’s 385 million streams, by comparison, were nearly three times Sheeran’s total of 135 million.

Nielsen’s Bakula attributed the difference to a preference for streaming by fans of R&B hip-hop. The genre is favored by streaming services like Tidal and Apple Music in their “exclusive” promotions.

Yet he’s confident that fans of other genres will catch up.

“We’re only in the fourth inning [of a nine-inning game],” he said. “A lot of the population still isn’t aware the entire music catalog is available 24/7 for less than $10 a month.”

Drake be like …..

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