Spotify Finally Addresses Drake’s Accusations

Later today (Friday, December 20), a Houston court will hold a hearing concerning the legal petition from Drake against his parent label Universal Music Group and Spotify for allegedly inflating the streams of Kendrick Lamar‘s diss track, “Not Like Us.” Before that, though – according to Billboard – the streaming service filed a response to these accusations in Manhattan court on Friday. They called these allegations “false” and characterized the move in court as a “subversion of the normal judicial process.” In addition, the DSP giant alleged that they found no evidence at all of any use of bots, payola, or other alleged methods used to artificially boost the West Coast banger.

Furthermore, Spotify also denied Drake’s claims that they colluded with UMG to ensure Kendrick Lamar’s massive success. “The predicate of Petitioner’s entire request for discovery from Spotify is false,” their legal team expressed. “Spotify and UMG have never had any such arrangement.” Also, much of their filing attacks the 6ix God for taking this to court, wondering why they are a part of these “far-fetched” and “speculative” claims.

“What petitioner is seeking to do here … is to bypass the normal pleading requirements … and obtain by way of pre-action discovery that which it would only be entitled to seek were it to survive a motion to dismiss,” Spotify’s attorneys wrote concerning the Drake situation. “This subversion of the normal judicial process should be rejected.” We’ll see whether today’s hearing leads to any significant decisions on this matter. In Texas court, another legal matter from Aubrey Graham accuses UMG of defaming him by releasing “Not Like Us” with the alleged knowledge that its accusations are supposedly false.

“The Petition asserts no specific facts of any kind in support of these alleged RICO and deceptive practices violations,” Spotify’s lawyers added concerning the Drake petition. “Instead, it relies exclusively on speculation … or the claims of anonymous individuals on the Internet. […] When we identify attempted stream manipulation, we take action that may include removing streaming numbers, withholding royalties and charging penalty fees. [We also remove] confirmed and suspected artificial streams… from our chart calculations. This helps us to protect royalty payouts for honest, hardworking artists.”