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Drake breaks single-day streaming records on Apple Music and Spotify (updated)
Poor Tay Tay. The queen of pop music has just been deposed on the streaming service she fought with most by none other than Drake himself. According to Pitchfork, the artist's latest song, "God's Plan" now holds the title for the most streams in a single day ever.
Netflix revives London street drama 'Top Boy' with Drake's help
Netflix is continuing its tradition of extending popular Channel 4 TV shows after confirming that London street drama Top Boy is being revived. In a tweet, the show's star Ashley Walters -- also known as Asher D from the So Solid Crew -- confirmed that the series has been picked up as a Netflix Original and will debut in 2019 with a little help from Canadian megastar Drake.
Post Malone sets Apple Music streaming record with song ‘Rockstar’
Post Malone's song "Rockstar" has just surpassed DJ Khaled's "I'm the One" as the record with the most Apple Music streams in one week. The Verge reports that the song snagged 25 million streams in a single week on the music service, which accounted for 56 percent of all first week streams of the song in the US. That's pretty impressive for a service that hosts around a sixth of the users that Spotify does.
'Coloring Book' is the first streaming-only album up for a Grammy
Meghan Trainor announced the nominees for this year's Grammy Awards on Monday night. Beyonce, deservedly, is leading the field with 9 nominations followed closely by Drake, Rhianna and Kanye West who all have 8 apiece. But more surprising is the category for Best New Rap Album for which Chance the Rapper's Coloring Book is nominated. This is the first time that an album available only through streaming services has earned a Grammy nod.
Drake has the first album with a billion Apple Music streams
Apple's strategy of cherry-picking exclusives for Apple Music seems to be paying off. Drake's Views, which debuted on April 29th, has already attracted 1 billion plays -- a first for the company's plays streaming service. The album was technically a timed exclusive -- Spotify and others snapped it up five days later -- but still, that tiny window could have been important. Apple is trying to build a reputation, much like Tidal was, of being the best place to listen to new music. Any special deals it can negotiate will further that cause, and potentially bring in new subscribers.
Apple is making a documentary with Cash Money Records
Cash Money Records' deal to stream some of its music exclusively on Apple's subscription service appears to be about more than just tunes. Bloomberg reports that Drake and Nicki Minaj's record label is working with Apple on a documentary as well. The two companies are already quite familiar with each other as Drake's Views From the 6 was an Apple Music exclusive the first week after it was released. Drake was also on stage at the event where Apple Music was first revealed to the world.
Drake's new album only an Apple Music exclusive for a week
We had an inkling that Drake's next album, Views From the 6, would hit streaming services other than Apple Music but didn't exactly know when. The truth is you'll only have to wait a week after its initial release before you can hear it on other platforms, according to Buzzfeed News. That exclusivity window is pretty brief, and compared to how Kanye West and streaming service Tidal handled The Life of Pablo, refreshingly straightforward. Pretty sure I'm not the only one who's disappointed that the news didn't come via an ill-advised tweetstorm though.
Drake's 'Views From the 6' album is an Apple Music exclusive
Music-streaming services are relying on exclusive content to outdo each other. And whether we like it or not, it doesn't look as if that's going to change anytime soon. Now, Drake has revealed that his fourth studio album, titled Views From the 6, will release April 29th exclusively on Apple Music. Oddly enough, the Canadian rapper tweeted the announcement Saturday night, but he's since deleted that tweet and replaced it with another which doesn't mention the deal with Apple. Nevertheless, the Cupertino company confirmed the exclusive to Pitchfork.
'Meeky Mill' makes a game out of current rap feuds
In case you haven't been keeping up with the life of rapper Meek Mill, he's had a tough go of it over the last six months or so. After Meek accused Drake of using a ghostwriter on hit songs last summer, the Canadian rapper's musical response coined the phrases "trigger fingers turned to Twitter fingers," "is that a world tour or your girl's tour?" and left Mill as the subject of endless jokes and memes. Now that Meek has sparked another beef, this time with 50 Cent, his unenviable situation has been captured by a videogame, Meeky Mill (warning: language). Produced by musician/indie game developer Richie Branson, it's a side-scroller platformer/endless runner where Meek dodges L bombs and missiles tossed by his rivals.
Tidal claims Apple prevented it from streaming a Drake performance
It's no secret that Apple and Tidal are at each other's throats over music exclusives, but that fight might have reached a new peak. Tidal claims that Apple stopped it from streaming Drake's brief guest appearance at New Orleans' Lil Weezyana Fest on August 28th, presumably due to an exclusivity deal with the Canadian musician. If you take Tidal's word at face value, Apple was an Orwellian tyrant "interfering with artistry." One of the New York Post's tipsters goes so far as to contend that Apple is trying to "dictate" when and where artists can perform, which would be harsh... if it were true.
Pharrell, Drake and Elton John will DJ on Apple's Beats 1
With Apple Music launching in less than a week, much of the focus has been on its relationship with artists and the royalties it pays. Thanks to Taylor Swift, it appears to have weathered its minor storm, allowing it to focus on other parts of its upcoming launch. Beats 1, for example, will begin broadcasting on June 30 and will be fronted by ex-Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe in Los Angeles, Ebro Darden in New York and Julie Adenuga in London. When Apple's first live radio station was announced, it wasn't known how the company intended to fill the programming gaps between the three main hosts. However, the New York Times reports that it has lined up a number of high-profile musicians to do their part, with Dr. Dre Pharrell Williams, Drake, Jaden Smith, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, Disclosure and even Elton John due to present their own shows.
Drake vs. Lil Wayne gets the 'Street Fighter' treatment from Capcom
What happens when Capcom signs on to sponsor your upcoming tour? Well, you may be in for a Street Fighter-esque app to bolster the live show. In the DvsLW app for Android and iOS, hip-hop artists Drake and Lil Wayne get help from the crowd during their co-headlining dates starting this week. Developed with a hand from the video game outfit, the mobile software lets you choose between the two stars before tapping a button to "power up," boosting performances in real-time. That's right, concert goers will select their tour date and then influence the results each night. It's worth noting that tour-specific apps (and album-specific offerings, for that matter) are nothing new, but big name acts continue to crank out mobile companions to go along with the trek. [Photo credit: Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images]
Dance Central 3 DLC includes three artists, zero last names
This month's Dance Central 3 downloadable content celebrates both single-name performers, and former child actors. Degrassi: The Next Generation alum Drake's "Take Care," featuring Rihanna, will be available March 5. The next week, Rihanna's own "Umbrella" and "SOS" will be available as a 400 MSP ($5) bundle or alone for $3 each.Finally, on March 19, "London Bridge" by Fergie of Kids Incorporated fame will be released as danceable DLC.
T-Mo invites us to 'Experience the World of T-Mobile & Google' with Busta Rhymes as our guide
We're still having fun coming up with reasons why Google decided to have its next "special event" in Los Angeles -- popular choices include "easy access to geothermal power" and "trying to help LA fall into the sea, already" -- but now things are looking a little more clear. A star-studded event happening later that night has been announced, hosted by T-Mobile and featuring Drake, Maroon 5, Busta Rhymes, Dirty South and R3hab. That's nice, but we're more curious about what kind of hardware we'll be seeing. Could this be why Verizon backed down from its "exclusive" stance on the Galaxy Nexus? Does the big boombox up on the billboard mean Google Music will be getting a proper launch, or just that Busta will be rocking it old school? We'll see on Wednesday night.
Breakfast Topic: That longing feeling
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Once upon a time in a distant land called Azeroth, a Night Elf druid was born. This little Night Elf was running around being its level 4 self, exploring the world and its purpleness (Teldrassil being the whole world for a level 4.) A hop skip, and a boat ride away, she found herself in Stormwind, city of the humans. "It's not nearly as purple here as it is back home!" Hardly two steps into the great city when all of a sudden the sky darkened and a deafening screech rose. At first startled and then in awe, the little druid looked up to see the silhouette of a great winged dragon. The best part about it ... it was purple! "I must own that dragon!" She thought. After a quick trip to the internet, the goal was set and the journey began, pushing through 80 levels of dungeons and deaths, beginning the rep grind, and finally obtaining the fruit of the efforts: a netherwing drake. Although I don't play that Night Elf druid as much anymore, I still remember the wonder and awe I first felt when I began playing. Have you had similar experiences? Did you ever have a goal that you once thought was unobtainable? If so, did you prove yourself wrong, or does your goal still elude you?
Recording artist Drake joins the cast of Gears of War 3
Successful young hip-hop upstart Aubrey Graham -- you may know him as "Drake," the pseudonym he took on upon entering the rap game -- will provide the voice of Jace Stratton, one of the new playable protagonists in Gears of War 3. Rabid fans of the series will likely recognize Stratton as one of the main characters from the comic books. Rabid fans of Degrassi will likely recognize Drake, because that dude was totally on Degrassi. On the subject of Drake's casting, Epic Executive Producer Rod Fergusson explained, "when we began casting for the role, 'So Far Gone' had just released, and Drake's combination of heart and grit was just what we were looking for." That sounds reasonable enough, though we suspect they might just be setting up the cast for the next next game in the series, Gears of Degrassi: The Next Infestation. You heard it here first, folks.
Latest EVE Quarterly Economic Newsletter shows effect of Hulkageddon
EVE Online is a game that's often lauded for its sandbox style and realistic economic structures. Every quarter, CCP Lead Economist Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson and his team of researchers wade through mountains of EVE usage logs to find some interesting economic statistics. In their Quarterly Economic Newsletters (QEN), CCP deliver graphs tracking in-game prices, trade volumes, ships in use and a whole host of other useful metrics. Read on for an overview of this QEN's main highlights.
New LotRO Vol. III book 1 screens include awesome dragon
Turbine knows how to please a crowd, as evidenced by these new screens for Volume III: Allies of the King, Book 1 for Lord of the Rings Online. Who doesn't love dragons? Well, okay, probably not the party currently under siege by one in the screenshot above -- but everyone else for the most part. At least, everyone else loves them until they're attacked by one. Anyhow, check out the rest of the screens. We especially recommend this one particular screen, where you'll find some other non-dragon enemies that look more than ready to tear apart your character in-game. Yes, we know, we've got a problem with dragons today. Don't worry, we're done now. Honest.%Gallery-84675%
Blizzard and how they deal with ninjas
Wojtek sent us this thread in which he posted a long series of emails between him and Blizzard about the ninja of an Onyxia Drake. There's a lot of back and forth, but eventually, the bottom line is that Blizzard was not able to help him, whether that's because he didn't have the information right, they couldn't find what they needed in the chat logs, or they just didn't want to. Later on, the thread is locked, and Wojtek is given the usual feedback address for the GM actions. So what does all this mean? We've heard in the past that Blizzard will occasionally help with ninjas, and we've even heard unofficially that if you get the main looter in a PuG raid to state the looting conditions ahead of time, Blizzard can go back, look that up, and then reward loot based on who really deserves it. But of course, all of that is unofficial, and there are so many variations and issues in situations like these that there can't really be a hard and fast rule -- sometimes Blizzard can help, sometimes they can't.
How to: Five Amber drakes in The Oculus
After yet another Cracked Egg with nothing but a Cobra Hatchling in it, and the bigtime raiding proto-drakes constantly getting dropped out of the game, there's really only one other option: the Red Proto-drake, a reward for the Glory of the Hero meta-achievement. It's not easy: you've got to not only beat all of the heroics in the game, but all of the hard mode achievements for each of them. Guides like our OverAchievers can help, and a really great group to go along with helps more, but some of the achievements are so tough they need extra attention.The Oculus' achievement, however, is one that needs an even closer look. And 4 Haelz kindly provides exactly that, with an in-depth guide to toppling two achievements in one, both the Emerald and Ruby Void, by doing the boss with five Amber drakes. The Amber drakes are usually meant as DPS, which makes this fight extra tough: you can't take much damage at all, because you can't get any damage back without healers. So what it requires, instead, is communication and coordination. Basically, you use the drakes' Time Stop ability to slow the fight down, and then try to do some coordinated kiting while DPSing like mad, all the time hoping that you can bring him down before he takes one of you out.As Bell says, once you get the idea (and have wiped a few times -- you should probably be riding the drakes naked, since not only does your gear not affect their performance, but it'll save you repair costs), the fight's not actually that hard to pull off, but it's the learning that's going to hurt.
