Drake’s ‘Views’ Sells Over 820K in 2 Days

The word is still out on whether Drake’s Views lived up to its tremendous hype, but perhaps a more interesting note is how its rollout and Apple Music exclusivity adds to the changing nature of album sales and the metrics of success. After Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo was reportedly streamed over 250 million times over a 10 day period while it was still a Tidal exclusive, the question remained if such numbers were a product of West’s draw or an indication of how major albums would be released and measured in the new age of streaming.

According to Buzz Angle Music, Drake’s Views sold more than 740,000 units in the U.S. over a two day period, and more than 80,000 in Canada over that same time. The website defines album project units as album sales plus individual song sales divided by 10 plus on-demand audio streams divided by 1,500. In that case, Views benefits from being 20 tracks longs and from including “Hotline Bling,” which to date has been streamed more than 432 million times on Spotify.

More concrete numbers will be available once Views is released throughout the streaming world, and physical copied hit shelves on Friday (May 6) but if the forecast is any indication, it would appear that Drake’s latest is major W for the artist and growing trend to embrace streaming via album exclusivity. The two-day figures for Views would total a greater number than Beyonce’s first week sales of Lemonade, which was a Tidal exclusive for about 24 hours and used HBO as an added medium of presentation.

SOURCE: XXL