Apple Music prevented Drake’s ‘Hotline Bling’ from becoming a No. 1 single

Drake, the Toronto native, has accomplished a lot this year with every card in his hands. The “Nothing Was the Same” rapper is already trying to win the rap beef with Meek Mill, Nicki Minaj’s boyfriend, and word is, he is going to do everything in his power to win the battle. We are not surprised that Drake has released two albums in 2015 and both hit the No.1 spot but his luck seems to meet a dead end.

Here is why

Drake’s latest single “Hotline Bling” is skyrocketing on Billboard charts but is still waiting to be in the No.1 spot. The top spot is occupied by The Weekend’s single “The Hills”. The elementary grounds behind “Hotline Bling” not crusading over “The Hills” is partially because of Drake’s partnership with Apple’s streaming service. The $19 million deal with Apple Music takes into account of “Hotline Bling” being stagnant. As per the contract, Apple Music exclusively featured Drake’s release for the first week. Moreover, Nielsen Music has not reported any views by Apple which adds more worry for Drake. Drake’s song would have already had a couple of million views if it weren’t on the paid streaming service.

The hilarious tweets about this conflict went viral, one of which said “The internet must have gone insane when “Hotline Bling” was released.” Another uproarious tweet said, “YouTube must have suffered a lot while playing “Hotline Bling”.”

Thus, empirically, Drake’s dream video had counted zero views until it was released on Monday on Vevo. This proved to be heartbreaking for him because he was taking this song as pretty big deal as he claimed this single as his careers’ best. In a post on Instagram, he explained how important it was for him to be No. 1. Drake, in his entire career, has never got billboard’s top spot. According to him, if he gets featured in No.1 spot in October, it would definitely be one of the most amazing moments of life. Any accolades really don’t matter for him as far as this ‘Hall of Fame’ moment is considered.

Drake has to face stiff competition on his way up

Now that, Adele’s single “Hello” was released last week and Justin Bieber’s single “Sorry” is also in the competition, it would be a big hurdle for Drake to be in the top of the charts. Adele recently broke the record of Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” as “Hello” registered 27.7 million views in its very first day, beating Swift’s 20.1 million views in 24 hours. “Hello” has already collected 90+million views.

The rapper, singer and songwriter has put himself in risk by making an exclusive music deal. It might be earning him a lot of money but Drake is paying a price for it.

But, can Drake turn the table? Or is it already all over for him as the month end is nearing? The statistics could have been changed if Apple and Drake would have let Nielsen count the first week’s views. But now, we’ll never know.

Drake’s mistake though is a good lesson for all the artist in the industry. Sometimes, its not all about the money.