Drake’s dropping his buzzy legal action against UMG and Spotify – at least one of them. Billboard broke the news early Wednesday.
Court docs filed Tuesday in Manhattan show the Toronto rapper’s Frozen Moments, LLC met with both companies before officially pulling back.
Spotify’s cool with the withdrawal, while UMG’s keeping their stance open. The second pre-action petition against UMG and iHeartMedia in Texas is still active, with a hearing coming up this month.
Earlier, Spotify shot down Drake’s claims they artificially pumped up streams for Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” which took shots at the For All the Dogs artist during their beef.
“Spotify has no economic incentive for users to stream ‘Not Like Us’ over any of Drake’s tracks. Only one of Spotify for Artists’ tools, Marquee, was purchased on behalf of the song, for €500 to promote the track in France. Marquee is a visual ad that is disclosed to users as a Sponsored Recommendation,” the company told Variety.
UMG fired back too: “The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue. We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns. No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”
Drake’s company had accused them of using bots and payola to pump up Kendrick’s Grammy-nominated diss track, even claiming UMG broke RICO laws – which they denied.
Drake’s staying quiet on this latest move. Back in December, his team told Complex they weren’t shocked Spotify was “trying to distance themselves” from the allegations.
“If Spotify and UMG have nothing to hide then they should be perfectly fine complying with this basic discovery request,” his reps said then.
We’ve reached out to Drake’s team, Spotify and UMG for comment. Updates might come.
As Complex’s Shawn Setaro explained in November, these weren’t actual lawsuits, despite social media claims. They’re “pre-action” petitions – potential lawsuit precursors that don’t have to lead anywhere.
Drake’s been teasing studio updates while fans wait on his collab album with PND, supposedly almost done last year.
Meanwhile, Kendrick’s set to rock next month’s controversial Super Bowl show in New Orleans, announced last September.
