Spotify have been accused of selling out their users after a massive Drake marketing campaign backfired. Following the June 29th release of the rapper’s new studio album, Scorpion, Spotify saturated the site with Drake promotion as part of their ‘Scorpion SZN’ campaign.
Users took to social media to vent their anger after Drake soon began completely overtaking their feeds. Pushy adverts for the new album covered the front page, and Drake’s image was placed on a huge number of playlists, including ones in which he didn’t even feature – like ‘Indie Party’, ‘Grime Shutdown’ and (most oddly/amusingly) ‘Best of British’.
Drake fever: Spotify frontpage at the height of the campaign (Credit: The Industry Observer)
Some felt that the promotion violated Spotify’s user agreements. The website’s paid service, Spotify Premium, is supposed to be ad-free but it’s hard to say the promotion doesn’t amount to advertising. What’s more, a big selling point of the service is its personalisation, yet Drake has been pushed on users regardless of their streaming history. One Reddit user even managed to get a refund from the site, but others have had mixed success. Detailing his interaction with Spotify customer service in a post that garnered over 22,000 upvotes, the user called Spotify’s conduct ‘discomforting’, ‘dishonest’ and ‘slimey’.
I paid for no ads. I want NO ADS!! @Spotify @SpotifyCares
— Thien Do Huu (@ThienDoHuu) July 1, 2018
Spotify: YOU WILL LISTEN TO DRAKE AND YOU WILL LIKE IT.
Me: But I want to….
Spotify: DRAKE. pic.twitter.com/xdxcej6bB5
— Dani Deahl (@danideahl) June 29, 2018
Despite the complaints, the campaign seemed to pay off as Scorpion broke streaming records across the world. Just 3 days after its release, Billboard reports that the album had received 435 million streams, overtaking the previous 7 day-streaming record held by Post Malone’s beerbongs and bentleys since May. The album is expected to debut at number 1 in the US and the UK, fending off new releases from Florence + The Machine and Gorillaz.
Already supported by the three singles ‘God’s Plan‘, ‘Nice For What‘ and ‘I’m Upset‘, Drake is releasing two more singles from the album on 10th July – ‘In My Feelings‘ and ‘Don’t Matter To Me‘. The album can be streamed and downloaded here.
‘Scorpion’ – released June 29th
