Drake and Pharrell have been confirmed for new Apple Music venture
Though the official announcement won’t be made until next week at Apple’s 2015 Worldwide Developers Conference, which runs from June 8-12, Billboard has confirmed with several sources “familiar with negotiations” that Drake and Pharrell will be two of the faces anchoring the new service. Earlier this week, several reports alleged that Drake would be receiving $19 million for joining Apple’s efforts, but that fact has not been confirmed by said sources. According to Billboard‘s report, an Apple source had this to say about the alleged payday, “Apple doesn’t normally pay artists for those types of collaborations.”
Apple’s launch will come at a very contentious time for streaming services. Jay Z‘s Tidal is working very hard to avenge their sputtering start out of the gate, and Spotify is reportedly under pressure from Apple to get rid of its free membership program. Let the stream wars begin.
