Drakeâs âMore Lifeâ has shattered the singlę§e album US streaming record â as it was played 385 million times in its debut week.
The Canadian rapper shattered the previous record â which he held with his 2016 album, âViewsâđŚ â by 57 percent, accorđ¸ding to Nielsen Music.
âMore Lifeâ alsoâą generated 505,000 album equivalents in its first week â enough for it to debut atop the Billboard 200 chart.
An album equivalent is equal to 1đŹ0 single-track sales or 1,500 on-demand song streams.
âThe stunning number of streamsđ is the result of Drakeâs being an artist at the top of his game,â said Dave Bakula, SVP of analytics at Nielsen Entertainment. âBut itâs also a function of all streaming services growing like crazy.â
Indeed, on-demand audiđo streams increased 76 percent in 2016đŚŠ, according to Nielsen.
That gain allowed the industry to post a 3 percent increase in overall volume, despiteđ declines of 20 percent in digital-album units and 14 percent in physical albums.
Drakeâs âMore Lifeâ joins Ed Sheeranâs âDivideâ as the monthâs two blockbuster alđ bums, although their respective fans have distinct buying habits.
Sheeranâs consumers like to own, resulting in first- week album sales of 322,000 â 43 percent morꌥe than Drakeâs 225,000.
Drakeâs 385 million streams, by comâparison, were nearly three times Sheeranâs total of 135 million.
Nielsenâs Bakula attributed the difference to a preferđŻence for streaming by fans of R&B hip-hop. The genre is favored by streaming services like Tidal and Apple Music in their âexclusiveâ promotions.
Yet heâs conęŚfident that fans of other genres will catch up.
âWeâre only in the fourth inning [of a nine-inning game],â he said. âA lot of the population still isnâđt aware the entire music catalog is available 24/7 for less than $10 a month.â