MBW’s sources tell us that Apple has made a multi-million investment via consistent financial support for Scott’s career over the past three years. In other words, you’d have to stream Travis Scott’s Astroworld three times as much on ad-supported Spotify as you would on premium Spotify/Apple Music to have the same impact on the Billboard 200 chart.Īpple Music’s close relationship with Travis Scott actually goes back to before the launch of the service in 2015. However, it takes 3,750 ad-funded, on-demand audio streams to achieve the same ‘sale’. Since late June, one album ‘sale’ has been equivalent to 1,250 on-demand audio premium streams on the Billboard 200. In the US market, the Billboard 200 albums list now down-weights ad-funded streams versus their premium equivalents. Where stories like this get really interesting is when you consider how much more money per-stream Apple’s pay-only platform is delivering versus Spotify’s freemium competitor – and the contribution each service makes to the charts. On that record, Apple claimed 64.5m day-one streams in the US Spotify announced it did 36.7m US-based plays in the same period. Other recent standout hip-hop albums on which Apple Music has ‘beaten’ Spotify’s day one stream count include J.Cole’s KOD, released in April. (Spotify eventually took a slightly bigger week-one global tally for Scorpion, but Apple Music was miles ahead in the US.) Today’s news comes after Apple Music comfortably beat Spotify’s opening performance on Drake’s record breaking, 17-track Scorpion, with Apple’s 170m day-one global streams dwarfing Spotify’s circa-132m tally. In Astroworld’s first three days (Fri-Sun) on Apple Music, we’re told, the album’s tracks drew 153m streams globally. (Drake’s Scorpion is No.1 with 170.6m opening day streams No.2 is Drake’s Views on 85.1m and No.3 is Drake’s More Life on 84.9m.) How does Apple Music compare? Comfortably out in front.Īccording to MBW insiders at Apple, the Cupertino company’s platform drew 80m worldwide streams of Astroworld within the album’s opening 24 hours – making it the fourth biggest day-one debut in Apple Music history.