Canadian rapper Drake’s new album, Views, debuted on the streaming service Apple Music last night, and has since been added to the iTunes Store, priced at $13.99. In a big coup for Apple, the album will, for its first week of availability, be kept away from other music streaming services such as Spotify.
This period of exclusivity was confirmed by Drake himself on Apple’s radio station Beats 1. He also revealed that the album very much takes inspiration from how he feels about himself and Toronto, his home city, insisting: “I’m a very honest person. I can’t write fiction.”
As Drake was last year’s most streamed artist on Spotify, the album’s launch on Apple Music is likely to drive a big boost in subscribers for that service. And, once many Drake followers have signed up, they can enjoy a huge music library that also includes PVRIS’s White Noise (Deluxe Version) and A$AP Ferg’s Always Strive and Prosper, both of which are reviewed in our new issue.
