Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web:
More records for Drake’s record: Drake’s new album Views now holds the record for week-one streaming performance in the U.S. According to BuzzAngle, the album generated 247.9 million streams in the country during its first week. As we’ve discussed, the performance is even more impressive given the tight windowing of this launch; it’s only available on Apple Music and won’t go out to other platforms until May 13.
A rational take on Radiohead and Spotify: Announcements of a big new album not being available on Spotify are becoming, and they’re certainly not surprising when the artist in question is a long-time critic. Radiohead’s new project “A Moon-Shaped Pool,” debuted for streaming on Apple Music and Tidal, and is available for purchase on most digital storefronts. The Guardian broke down why, despite past comments from frontman Thom Yorke, this isn’t terrible news for the band or Spotify.
Spotify exec talks Apple Music impact: In an interview with Reuters, Spotify exec Jonathan Forster said that the launch of Apple Music has meant good things for his employer. “Since Apple Music started we’ve been growing quicker and adding more users than before,” Forster said. “It would be terrible if we were just taking each other’s users or to learn there was just a ceiling of 100 million users – I don’t think that is the case.” Despite the positive impact today, Forster did project consolidation across the streaming sector in the future.