Whether it’s hosting a show on Beats 1, sporting a vintage Apple jacket, or having his music tirelessly promoted in Apple Music ads, Drake’s about as established a part of Cupertino these days as Eddy Cue’s collection of Hawaiian shirts.
No surprise then that everyone’s favorite Canadian Degrassi actor-turned-bad-boy-rapper just chose iTunes and Apple Music as the place to debut his new, fourth studio album Views.
#VIEWS Now Available On iTunes https://t.co/LZ6JFz6WlC pic.twitter.com/C5FSmRf8zw
— Drizzy (@Drake) April 29, 2016
Boasting a total of 20 songs, Drake’s follow-up to 2013’s acclaimed Nothing Was The Same features appearances from Kanye West, Future, PartyNextDoor, Rihanna, the late Pimp C, Popcaan, Wiz Kid, and others; along with production from regular producer Noah “40” Shebib, Boi-1da, Nineteen85, Murda Beatz, and assorted other names which look like they come straight out of an internet forum.
This isn’t the first time Drake has chosen Apple as a platform for launching his music. Last year, Drake “dropped” a new surprise mixtape on iTunes, in an attempt to recreate the “Beyonce Effect” that accompanied that singer’s platinum album “BEYONCÉ” which become the fastest-selling album in the history of iTunes. Since then Apple has been pushing record-labels to embrace iTunes as a launch platform.
Two of 2016’s biggest hip hop albums — belonging to Kanye West and Beyonce — have debuted on Jay Z’s rival Tidal service, before making their way to iTunes. Still, it seems Drake is loyal to Tim Cook and co.
If you’re a fan of Drake, what better way to celebrate the iTunes Store’s 13th birthday?
Source: HNHH
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
3 responses to “Drake airs his Views on Apple Music and iTunes”
Drake? He can’t sing, he doesn’t play a musical instrument, so how can anything he does be classified as high quality music? I don’t get the attraction. Oh well, it just sounds like Apple’s in bed with a bunch of popular music acts that are putting out some of the most worthless music, but caters to people that haven’t figured out what music is all about. It’s too bad Tim Cook and Eddy Cue never really studied music on any serious level. They brought two idiots from the music industry and they seem to be caught up with the popularity trap. Just because something is popular, doesn’t mean it’s high quality. It’s typically the other way around.
I’m pretty sure we’ve disagreed previously about music in the comments section — but you won’t find me disagreeing about Drake. I’ve never really been a fan. At the same time, you can’t blame Apple for catering to what’s popular with Apple Music — particularly when it’s still playing catch-up in a lot of ways with other companies already working in streaming music.
I totally agree with the quality of music these days being pretty bad compared to the amazing stuff we had in the 90’s and the great classics before that. With what seems like such a shortage of good stuff these days i’ve found myself listening to a lot of 90’s rock/alternative and a lot of new Trance and House music. Unfortunately apple music doesn’t have a lot of stuff that’s available on beatport. I’m hoping they’ll start getting good electronic music soon. Until then, or until they have a beats station that isn’t primarily hip-hop based I won’t be a subscriber.