Kristen RidleyDrake’s company, Frozen Moments LLC, has filed a petition in New York Supreme Court against Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify, alleging the companies artificially inflated the success of Kendrick Lamar’s summer hit “Not Like Us”.
The legal action claims UMG orchestrated a campaign to manipulate streaming numbers through various means, including the use of bots and payola schemes. According to the filing, UMG offered Spotify a 30% discount on licensing fees for “Not Like Us” in exchange for prominently featuring the song to users searching for unrelated artists and tracks.
The petition also alleges that UMG arranged with Apple to have its digital assistant Siri redirect users requesting Drake’s album “Certified Loverboy” to play “Not Like Us” instead. The track, which has accumulated over 900 million streams on Spotify, became the most streamed diss track in the platform’s history.
UMG has strongly rejected the allegations, stating that “the notion of undermining its artists is both offensive and false”. The company maintains that “fans choose the music they wish to hear”.
Drake’s legal team claims that when attempting to address these concerns, UMG refused to negotiate and suggested Drake pursue legal action against Lamar directly instead of the company. The filing further alleges that UMG dismissed employees who showed loyalty to Drake.
The petition, which serves as a preliminary step toward a potential lawsuit, seeks to secure evidence within New York state jurisdiction. Spotify has declined to comment on the matter.
Citations:
[1] https://www.npr.org/2024/11/26/nx-s1-5206303/drake-kendrick-lamar-umg-spotify
[2] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/drake-accuses-spotify-umg-artificially-inflating-streams-kendrick-lamar-not-like-us/
[3] https://mashable.com/article/drake-suing-umg-spotify-explainer
[4] https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/drake-says-universal-music-group-spotify-artificially-inflated-kendric-rcna181791
[5] https://www.reddit.com/r/KendrickLamar/comments/1gzuz58/drake_has_initiated_legal_action_against/
[6] https://www.reddit.com/r/pittsburgh/comments/1gac6y3/npr_us_steels_decline_nearly_killed_this_town/
[7] https://www.wesa.fm/economy-business/2024-09-12/u-s-steel-1-billion-threat-to-leave-blocked-deal
[8] https://m.usw.org/news/media-center/articles/2024/planned-u-s-steel-sale-meets-anger-skepticism-usw-vows-to-fight-to-make-sure-company-lives-up-to-obligations
[9] https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29092024/us-steel-sale-climate-public-health-politics/
[10] https://www.npr.org/2024/11/21/nx-s1-5199958/tech-tesla-ev-adaptor-supercharger
[11] https://news.gm.com/home.detail.html/Pages/news/us/en/2024/sep/0918-nacs.html
Kristen Ridley