Drake

In a recent open letter to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, major players in the UK music industry, including Sir Mick Jagger, Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Tom Jones, have called for a major reform of the way that they, and their fellow musicians, are paid by streaming sites. They argue that, "the law has not kept up with the pace of technological change." It is true that streaming sites pay in a different way to how payments were and are calculated for radio air play, but does that mean that the payment is too small or that the way it is calculated needs to change? 

It was recently reported by the BBC that, "On streaming services, labels retain the majority of the money - with the artist receiving about 13% on average, and session musicians receiving nothing." This compares to a radio payment model where "royalties are split evenly between the record label and the artists/songwriters, with a small portion going to session musicians and backing performers, a system known as equitable remuneration."

Continue reading: Streaming Until You're Blue In The Face: Are Artists Under Paid Each Time You Listen To One Of Their Songs?

Following the recent release of his latest single, Kaiba, MC Salum talks to us about Drake, Dundee and desire among many other interesting things. Kaiba is Salum's third single this year and he's got plenty more in the pipeline. The proud Scottish native is keen that people conect with his conversational verses on tracks that he himself descibes as "cartoonish".

MC Salum

For those who may be new to your music, how would you describe your sound? 

Continue reading: MC Salum Talks To Contact Music Following The Release Of His Latest Single, Kaiba [Exclusive]

Just when it looked like Kanye West might have reached some kind of stability regarding his social media output, he’s gone a reignited his feud with fellow mega-star rapper Drake.

Taking to Twitter on Thursday evening (December 13th), the 41 year old hip-hop icon shared a screenshot of a message he allegedly received, stating that Drake had “sent in a clearance request” for 2009 song, ‘Say What’s Real’, in which the Canadian star sampled Kanye’s 808s & Heartbreak track ‘Say You Will’.

“Still need that apology for mentioning the 350s and trying to take food out your idol’s kids’ mouths,” he wrote. The two have been involved in a months-long feud regarding Drake’s beef with Pusha T. Drake explained how West invited him earlier this year to Wyoming to work on ‘Life Yourself’, before claiming that Kanye didn’t tell him he had plans to release an album [Scorpion] around the time of his own.

Continue reading: Kanye West Reignites Feud With Drake

It’s been a very good year for hip-hop, according to Spotify, with the online music platform sharing its most streamed artists list of 2018 which, unsurprisingly, shows Drake at the top of the pile.

The Canadian mega-star rapper racked up an incredible 8.2 billion streams over the last 12 months – that is, more than there are people in the entire world – fuelled by the summer release of his latest album Scorpion. Following him in the list of the biggest streaming artists are fellow rappers Post Malone and the late XXXTENTACION, Colombian reggaeton artist J Balvin and British superstar Ed Sheeran.

At one point, his fifth studio album was clocking up 10 million streams every single hour, so it can’t be any shock that Scorpion has wound up as the biggest-streaming album of the year. Post Malone's Beerbongs & Bentleys comes in second, with XXXTENTACION's ? and Dua Lipa's self-titled debut studio album following behind. In fifth place is Ed Sheeran, whose third album Divide topped the same list in 2017.

Continue reading: Drake Named Spotify's Most Streamed Artist Of 2018

Drake BREAKS BEATLES CHART RECORD

Rap megastar Drake has just overhauled a Billboard chart record held by The Beatles for over half a century, after his new track with Bad Bunny landed in the top ten this week.

The 32 year old’s guest spot on ‘MIA’ means that he’s now had 12 songs reach the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2018 – the most that any artist has had in a single year. It meant that a chart record that had stood for 54 years, when The Beatles scored 11 top ten hits in 1964 when both ‘I Feel Fine’ and ‘She’s A Woman’ entered the charts in America on December 26th that year.

Continue reading: Music News Round-Up: New Ian Brown And Gerard Way Songs, Drake Breaks Beatles Record

Rap megastar Drake has just overhauled a Billboard chart record held by The Beatles for over half a century, after his new track with Bad Bunny landed in the top ten this week.

The 32 year old’s guest spot on ‘MIA’ means that he’s now had 12 songs reach the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2018 – the most that any artist has had in a single year.

It meant that a chart record that had stood for 54 years, when The Beatles scored 11 top ten hits in 1964 when both ‘I Feel Fine’ and ‘She’s A Woman’ entered the charts in America on December 26th that year.

Continue reading: Drake Overhauls 54-Year Old Beatles Chart Record

As odd friendships go, few are as unexpected as that of Drake and Millie Bobby Brown's. But since the latter has become a superstar, it seems her social circles have broadened considerably. Not everyone thinks it's healthy, but who wouldn't want to be besties with the 'Stranger Things' icon?

Millie Bobby Brown at the MTV VMAs

At just 14-years-old, it might sound strange that she is hobnobbing with celebrities more than twice her age, but 31-year-old Drake is turning out to be her go-to contact for boy-related advice. And having recently broken up with her boyfriend of 7 months Jacob Sartorius, she needs all the help she can get.

Continue reading: Millie Bobby Brown Gets Boy Advice From Drake

After a summer of feuding over social media, Kanye West has extended an olive branch to his rap rival Drake just a couple of days after his wife Kim Kardashian publicly denied that she had slept with the Canadian star.

Posting a picture of one of Drake’s live shows, the 41 year old star wrote: “Sending good energy and love to Drake and family and crew…. I haven’t seen the show in person but the images look incredible online. I understand where the confusion started.”

“Let me start by apologizing for stepping on your release date in the first place… We were building a bond and working on music together including squashing the issues with Cudi at our office. When I put the dates up I was a bit ramped up doing 25 tweets a day TMZ happened shortly after… I have to hop on the plane now… will type more when I land.”

Continue reading: Kanye West Makes Peace Offering In Feud With Drake

Rap mega-star Drake has certainly been making waves with his new album Scorpion since it arrived last week – not only for breaking the single-day streaming record, but also for the manner of its roll-out, with some Spotify users asking for refunds after his photo appeared on every playlist the platform had.

The Canadian rapper, 31, released his latest double album Scorpion last Friday (June 29th) to great acclaim, smashing the one-day streaming record on the day of its arrival with 302 million plays in 24 hours. It also broke the single-week streaming record within three days, according to Billboard.

However, many Spotify premium subscribers, who have paid for ad-free accounts, have been demanding their money back from the streaming giant after it placed Drake’s face on hundreds of playlists that Spotify curates – even ones that didn’t actually feature any of his songs – arguing that the move amounted to advertising.

Continue reading: Spotify Users Demand Refunds Over Drake Promotion

Rap megastar Drake ended up losing a $5,000 bet with Twitch streamer Ninja when he hooked up with him once again for a round of Fortnite.

Just like they had done a fortnight ago when Drake joined Ninja, along with Travis Scott and Ju Ju Smith-Schuster, to break a Twitch streaming record for concurrent views, the Canadian star decided to join him for some online gaming on Tuesday night (April 10th) – only this time, the rapper decided to up the stakes.

Drake is a huge Fortnite fan who plays the game via Playstation 4 under the name ‘TheBoyDuddus’, and says he got friendly with Ninja by watching him play via Twitch. In last night's stream, Drake was apparently playing from a recording studio in London, with the rapper at one point mentioning potential lagging issues from playing on the EU server.

Continue reading: Drake Pays Twitch Streamer Ninja $5k After Losing 'Fortnite' Bet