Spotify has fired back at claims by Drake that it helped to artificially boost Kendrick Lamar’s diss track Not Like Us, describing the allegations as “false” and the rapper’s legal action a “subversion of the normal judicial process.”
You may recall that Drake filed a legal petition last month saying that Universal Music and Spotify had colluded to artificially inflate Not Like Us, by using bots, undisclosed payments and biased recommendations. Not Like Us went straight in at Number One in the Billboard chart in May, breaking a number of chart records along the way.
In a motion filed at a Manhattan court on Friday, Spotify have responded, saying that they have found no evidence of a bot attack and flatly denying that there was any collusion between themselves and Universal to promote Not Like Us.
“The predicate of Petitioner’s entire request for discovery from Spotify is false,” the company’s lawyers write. “Spotify and UMG have never had any such arrangement.”
The filing repeatedly criticises Drake for going to court in the first place, calling his claims of a conspiracy “far-fetched” and “speculative,” and questioning why Spotify (a “stranger” to the “long-running feud” between Drake, Kendrick and Universal) is even involved.
It also defended itself against claims that it used bots to artificially inflate the track in question. In an affidavit attached to Friday’s filing, Spotify’s Vice President of music offered sworn testimony that the company “invests heavily” in efforts to “mitigate the impact of artificial streaming on our platform.”
“When we identify attempted stream manipulation, we take action that may include removing streaming numbers, withholding royalties and charging penalty fees,” David Kaefer wrote. “Confirmed and suspected artificial streams are also removed from our chart calculations. This helps us to protect royalty payouts for honest, hardworking artists.”
Drake doesn’t appear to be backing down. After Spotify’s motion was filed, Drake’s legal team responded in a statement they gave to Billboard: “It is not surprising that Spotify is trying to distance themselves from UMG’s allegedly manipulative practices to artificially inflate streaming numbers on behalf of one of its other artists. If Spotify and UMG have nothing to hide then they should be perfectly fine complying with this basic discovery request.”
It’s been a year to forget for Drake, who came a distant second place in the battle of the diss tracks. At the end of 2024, his standing in hip hop is not what it was, with many figures including Charlamagne Tha God and DJ Hed criticising his decision to go down the legal route in his beef with Kendrick Lamar. One thing's for certain – the only winners from this latest round are likely to be the lawyers.
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