Apple Music paid Chance the Rapper $500,000 to exclusively stream his album for two weeks.
Chance The Rapper
The 23-year-old rapper - who has not signed a record deal and releases his music through streaming sites such as SoundCloud - revealed he made the deal with Apple for his latest record 'Coloring Book' because it was too good to turn down.
He tweeted: "I never felt the need to correct folks on my relationship with @apple but now that more people have tried to discredit my independence, I wanna clear things up.
"@apple gave me half a mil and a commercial to post Coloring Book exclusively on applemusic for 2 weeks. That was the extent of my deal, after 2 weeks it was on SoundCloud for free. I needed the money and they're all good people over there. I feel like if I didn't clear it up people would keep trying to discredit all the work we did to make Coloring Book what it became. I think artist can gain a lot from the streaming wars as long as they remain in control of their own product.
"I just wanna remain transparent. Folks out there without a deal need to know they're doing everything right just keep at it. If you come across opportunities to work with good people, pick up cash and keep your integrity I say Do It."
And Chance recently revealed that he would consider selling a follow-up to 'Coloring Book'.
He said: "I might actually sell this album. That's, like, a big step in itself. I kind of hate the fact that I can't chart, really. I can chart, but the way they have the streaming sh-t set up is weak as f**k. It's unfair. 1,500 streams is the equivalent to one [album sale], and that's just that's unfair. Nobody listens to their songs [1,500] times when they buy it - f**k outta here! So, it makes it hard. I can't really compete with other people. Not that the charts matter at all, but c'mon."
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