Chance the Rapper has clarified his Coloring Book deal with Apple Music, saying artists have much to gain from the so-called "streaming wars" as long as they're able to maintain control of their product. In a series of tweets Friday afternoon, Chance said he "never felt the need to correct folks" regarding his relationship with Apple, but was inspired to do so after people had started to "discredit" his independence as an artist.
According to Chance, Apple gave him $500,000 and a commercial in exchange for a two-week Coloring Book exclusive. "I needed the money and they're all good people over there," Chance said. The key to similar deals for other unsigned artists, Chance added, is to keep your integrity intact.
Peep the tweets in full below:
Coloring Book was released in May of 2016 as an Apple Music exclusive before later being added to SoundCloud for free. At this year's Grammys, Chance made history by bagging the Best Rap Album award:
In his Complex cover story this week, Chance—discussing the possibility of selling his debut album—detailed the "unfair" advantage sales still have over streams on the Billboard charts:
"I kind of hate the fact that I can't chart, really," Chance told Complex. "I can chart, but the way they have the stream shit set up is weak as fuck. It's unfair. And, you know, I don't know if it's— it's like 1,500 or 1,700 streams is the equivalent to one unit, and that's just, you know— that's unfair. Nobody listens to their songs 1,700 times when they buy it, fuck outta here. So, it makes it hard. I can't really— I can't compete with other people. Not that the charts matters at all, but like, come on."
