Rapper Drake: "allegations of bribery" against Apple's Siri
A well-known hip-hop star has sued Universal for allegedly paying Apple and Spotify to redirect Siri and apps to a competitor.
Rapper Drake at the Apple developer conference WWDC 2015 in San Francisco. The Californian company presented the Apple Music service there.
(Image: dpa, Christoph Dernbach/dpa)
Two rappers in dispute – and Apple's voice assistant in the middle of it: Aubrey Drake Graham, a hip-hop artist born in Toronto in 1988 and widely known as "Drake", has taken legal action against Universal Music in the Supreme Court of New York, alleging that the label "bribed" Apple to favor music by Kendrick Lamar.
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"We have information that UMG [Universal Music Group] made or authorized payments to Apple Inc. to have [Apple's] voice-controlled digital assistant Siri intentionally redirect users [to the song] "Not Like Us"," wrote Drake's legal advisors. This was reported by online sources. The users had previously asked for the song "Certified Loverboy" by Drake, but then received Lamar. In addition, "Not Like Us" contains the line "certified pedophile". This in turn is "an accusation against Drake".
Siri is not the only problem for Drake, however. Universal Music had also influenced Spotify, which is the main issue in the lawsuit. UMG had launched a "campaign to manipulate the streaming services market and saturate it with Not Like Us." "Bots" and "pay-to-play" contracts were also used. Universal Music had also offered Spotify discounts on licensing costs that were 30 percent lower for "Not Like Us", according to Drake's legal counsel.
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However, there is a difference between the two songs: "Certified Lover Boy" was released in 2021 and "Not Like Us" in spring 2024. It is therefore possible that the services rank the tracks differently. A test with Siri from Germany also showed that Apple Music plays "Certified Lover Boy" when asked for it. According to Drake, this happened in the summer of this year.
Apple does not offer any known services to favor certain songs with Siri. It is also not possible to pay for advertising to be placed on the voice assistant. Apple has not yet commented on the lawsuit. The Canadian rapper's accusations are based on a media report in Vibe magazine, among other things. There it can be read that it was apparently about calling up "Certfied Lover Boy" on Spotify while using Siri. There is no mention of Apple or any payment from the company.
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