Spotify Denies Drake’s “Far-Fetched” Claims That It Colluded With UMG To Boost “Not Like Us”

A few weeks after Drake claimed Spotify offered Universal Music Group “drastically reduced rates” than usual to artificially boost “Not Like Us,” the streaming company has finally responded. On Friday (Dec. 20), the music platform denied the Canadian star’s “far-fetched” and “speculative” accusations.

“Spotify has no economic incentive for users to stream ‘Not Like Us’ over any of Drake’s tracks,” the streaming giant shared in a statement, per Variety. “Only one of Spotify for Artists’ tools, Marquee, was purchased on behalf of the song, for €500 to promote the track in France. Marquee is a visual ad that is disclosed to users as a Sponsored Recommendation.”

A spokesperson for the company further noted, “UMG and Spotify have never had any arrangement in which UMG ‘charged Spotify licensing rates 30 percent lower than its usual licensing rates for ‘Not Like Us’ in exchange for Spotify affirmatively recommending [‘Not Like Us’],’ including ‘to users who are searching for other songs and artists.’”

In Drake’s first of two petitions, he claimed that Siri — Apple’s voice-activated digital assistant — was to “purposely misdirect users” to “Not Like Us” under the direction of UMG. The suit said that when fans searched for Certified Lover Boythe rapper’s sixth studio album, they would instead be recommended the aforementioned song by Lamar, which contained lyrics like, “Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles.”

UMG was much quicker to respond to Drake, whose OVO Soundoperates under a joint venture with Republic Records. The music corporation stressed that it would never “do anything to undermine any of its artists.” A representative added, “No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”

50 Cent, however, isn’t buying those claims. On Monday’s (Dec. 16) airing of the “Flagrant” podcast, the New York native said, “Everything he said [UMG] did in that lawsuit, they did it.”