Drake Suggests That Spotify Should Pay Artists Performance-Based Bonuses

Drake wants Spotify to drop a check. The 6 god suggested that musicians should get “bonuses like athletes” when they reach streaming milestones on Spotify.

Drizzy’s statement comes after it was reported that he had surpassed 75 billion streams on the Spotify, making him the first artist to achieve such a milestone. Following the announcement, Drake re-shared a graphic detailing his feat – it includes Spotify’s logo, but doesn’t appear on any of the platform’s official accounts. He took to his Instagram stories to share his thoughts about artists reaching impressive milestones.

“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.

.@Drake has now surpassed 75 billion streams on Spotify across all credits. He is the first artist in history to hit this milestone.

— chart data (@chartdata) February 1, 2023

Drake’s suggestion is timely, as Universal Music Group and major streaming services are undergoing a new model that would pay artists fairly, per Financial Times. Spotify currently pays artists between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream on average, with 70 percent of revenue going towards artist/rights holders and 30 percent to Spotify. The Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) have protested this inequity, with a list of demands titled ‘Justice At Spotify.’ The project currently has 28,000 signatures.

“The company behind the streaming platform continues to accrue value, yet music workers everywhere see little more than pennies in compensation for the work they make,” reads UMAW’s mission.

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

Drake’s latest collaborative album with 21 Savage, Her Loss, arrived last November – a follow-up to last year’s Honestly, Nevermind.