Stephen Silver
The rapper says Spotify pulled back on promotion of her new album, "Queen," after she launched a new Beats 1 show on Apple Music.
Popular artist Nicki Minaj last Thursday debuted a new show called "Queen Radio" on Apple Music's Beats 1 station, in conjunction with the release of her new album, "Queen," on August 10. Now, the artist is accusing Spotify of retaliating against her for the Apple deal by not promoting her music aggressively.
Minaj went on to blame Spotify, at least in part, for the album coming in second on the Billboard charts to Travis Scott's "Astroworld." The accusations from Minaj came in a series of tweets Sunday night.
Spotify put drake's face on every playlist but told me they'd have to teach me a lesson for playing my music 10 mins early on #QueenRadio. Even tho they've been giving away my music for free for years & I am one of the top Spotify artists of all time.
— QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018
Spotify had to teach me a lesson but rewarded the man who has had an Apple radio show the longest; inadvertently helping the Apple platform the most. Oh I can't wait for #QueenRadio on Tuesday. They took away my promotion they had promised for the 1st cpl days b/c of this. #Queen
— QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018
My music went up on Apple so I played it. I assumed it was on Spotify & Tidal at the same time. Spotify said that Apple tweeted fans advising #Queen was up & therefore they had to teach me a lesson. But PRAISE BE TO GOD!!!!!!
— QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018
My label didn't want to defend me for fear of Spotify trying to teach Ariana a "lesson" too! https://t.co/1dAdbcbWVd
— QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018
Do you know how many people subscribe to my Spotify page?????
— QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018
Beats 1 recently hosted a promotion for the album, which got the hashtag #NickiDay trending worldwide on April 13.
Nicki Minaj's Queen Radio show returns Tuesday on Beats 1.
Not the first time
This is only the latest skirmish involving Apple Music, Spotify, and the way exclusives with major artists remain a weapon in their battle with each other. In June, Drake's new album "Scorpion" had almost 25 percent more streams on Apple Music than on Spotify.
Spotify has been accused of retaliating against artists with Apple Music exclusives before.
In August 2016, artists said they were told that Spotify would "bury" their music in its search rankings if they did Apple Music or Tidal exclusives, once the music arrived on Spotify. Spotify strongly denied the report at the time.
Spotify went on to start offering its own exclusives with artists the following year.
AppleInsider Staff
Malcolm Owen
Oliver Haslam
Andrew O'Hara
Wesley Hilliard
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
24 Comments
Circling the drain. Next up, claim Apple is anti-competitive and ask the government for help.
Does "The Queen" pay Spotify for promoting her album or does Spotify do it for free? If the former, there should be contracts, and if the latter, why is she complaining?
Calling her product “music” is really being charitable.
The success of Apple Music absolutely terrifies Spotify. They’re as obsessed with Apple as Samsung is.
If Spotify had to pay normal rates for free tier streams, they’d be out of business already.