It’s a nuanced conversation

I don’t think pure sales should be dissed necessarily

But Drake’s position is that his success is based on the music itself and not anything else

There’s a conversation to be had there. I personally think at this point, streams and sales should just be counted separately as two different categories.

I always thought equating streams to sales was dumb but now that we’re so far into the streaming era, it feels even more unnecessary.

She had a Taylor amount of variants for this particular album but that’s okay!

Yes I fully agree with that. They should've been started counting and reporting sales & streams as separate metrics. Streaming-equivalent units was a good idea at first when the format was new, but ten years into the streaming era there's no reason we still need them.

That way there would be a clear distinction between which artists are the best sellers and which are the best on streaming

Yeah I agree. Which is why comparing this first week number to Iceman is really not a good or fair comparison for either artist

So have a lot of artists this decade

TTPD was still the most egregious, album had like 35 different versions first week

I do think Billboard needs to put a limit on how many variants an album can have during week one

because rap isnt propped up by f***ing airplay do u not realize how stupid u are lmfaooooo rap is actually popular pop is fake

17B streams on Spotify has nothing to do with airplay

SOUR is currently getting more daily streams on Spotify than every Drake album besides ICEMAN and none of those songs are on the radio right now

That’s a big statement to make lol NOTHING to do with it? The songs being featured in 100 commercials is a bigger push than any rapper has ever gotten probably. It’s safe to say that these things do help drive streams

Drivers License and good 4 u are still on the radio and will be for the next 20 years

They are not in heavy rotation. Go check any radio chart online right now neither of those songs are on them, especially with her having a brand new album that they're pushing right now

There is no amount of radio push that will make your album get 17B streams in five years. There are only 4 albums ever that have even reached that many streams. 17B is an absolutely absurd amount, especially in only half a decade

Immediately after making this post you asked AI why orod outsold Drake

Either way, the media presence of her music in real time obviously contributed to the songs becoming streaming staples, to say that her streams have nothing to do with airplay and traditional promo seems like too big of a statement to make.

Yea famously they never play Drake on the radio

The promo helped obviously like promo helps for any artist

But saying an album reached 17B streams because its songs were on the radio is a laughable level of cope

If it was that easy, every pop album would have that many streams

No I asked how many physicals she did. And I really had no idea it would be 60% of her number. Drake haters celebrating this is laughable. Yall not even funny with it either like when I did the Kenny chesney s***

Cope

Keep celebrating pop artists beating Drake because you’ll never see a rapper do it

Also, Taylor Swift albums get marketed and promoted more than any other artist on the planet and none of her albums have reached 17B streams, let alone in only five years

UTOPIA outsold For All the Dogs in 2023

I don’t count Travis Scott as a rapper he’s a crooner.

And how did he do it? BUNDLES

He's a rapper

Bundles still need to sell

Y'all are forgetting that there are a ton of artists who do bundles and still don't even clear 100K with them. It's a gimmick, not a cheat code

And even artists who sell a bunch of bundles and editions to dedicated fans STILL have their music listened to less than Drake. Powerful