An American story. Drake accuses Universal Music of having bribed Apple and Spotify to promote his rival Kendrick Lamar, also signed to Universal. His lawyers are demanding accountability in court.
What is Siri doing in there?
This is certainly the improbable story of the day. World-famous rapper Drake accuses his own record label, Universal Music, of favoring his “musical enemy” Kendrick Lamar via Spotify and Siri. According to the request filed by its lawyers, Universal Music would have artificially inflated the number of plays on Spotify of the song Not Like Us by Kendrick Lamar, thus illegally increasing the revenue generated by this song.
Even more surprising, Apple and Siri are also mentioned in the court filing. Drake, through his lawyers, accuses Universal of having paid Apple to have Siri play the song Not Like Us by Kendrick Lamar instead of the album Certified Lover Boy from Drake when asked to throw the latter. This phrase corresponds to a Drake album, but is also found in the Kendrick Lamar song cited above. As a reminder, the album Certified Lover Boy by Drake had broken records on Apple Music in 2021.
Some say this makes sense, as Kendrick Lamar’s song is much newer, released in May 2024, compared to Drake’s album, which is from 2021. Others think that, given the song’s fame, Drake album, it should always be chosen first. Ultimately, it’s a classic feud between two multi-millionaire rappers and their record label.
The most surprising thing about this is that Siri plays Drake’s album when using Apple Music. The “problem” only exists on Spotify. Drake should therefore focus his efforts on Universal Music and Spotify. We checked, it is indeed his album that appears first when you type Certified in the Apple Music search bar.
