Sick of Seeing Drake on Spotify? Some People Are Actually Getting Refunds Over It
Drake’s new album Scorpion is a monster — both in size, at 90 minutes and over 25 tracks, and in terms of popularity. Each of those 25 tracks took up the 25 top spots on Apple Music’s charts. Understandably, the hit album has been promoted on Spotify, appearing in almost every curated playlist. But some users are suffering from Drake overload, requesting refunds from the streaming service because they’re sick of seeing Drake on Spotify day in and day out.
In celebration of Scorpion smashing so many records, it’s understandable why Spotify would want to promote Drake. The album streamed on Spotify over 10 million times per hour on the first day of release. (Or, as The AV Club put it, “the human race collectively spent about 882 years this week listening to Drake.”)
Due to the album’s popularity, there was a surge of Drake on Spotify playlists. Drake himself appeared on the cover of nearly every official Spotify playlist, even if his music was only on approximately half of them. Seriously.
The ubiquity of Drake on Spotify, however, was due to a marketing deal. According to Variety, Spotify made a deal with the artist’s management to create its “first-ever global dedicated artist takeover.” But, the official @SpotifyCares Twitter account claimed the proliferation of Drake on Spotify was merely a celebration of his new album.
Some Spotify users weren’t happy. Yesterday Redditor Schwagschwag posted to r/Music, urging Spotify Premium users to get this month refunded. Schwagschwag’s argument is that Spotify Premium is supposed to be advertising-free; the “artist takeover” is an advertising campaign for Scorpion, so by forcing Premium users to see Drake on Spotify everywhere, Spotify is breaking its own agreement.
Schwagschwag posted his chat transcript so others could get their refunds as well. But other users on the Reddit post weren’t so lucky. Different customer service representatives were unwilling to give refunds; at least one representative even cancelled the customer’s account rather than issue a refund.
So, if you’re upset with the amount of Drake on Spotify you’ve been subjected to, there’s a chance you’re stuck with seeing his handsome mug til the hubbub around his new album dies down.
