We're hours away from the release of Drake's highly-anticipated album, VIEWS, and while fans are very interested to hear what it sounds like, they're also wondering how much the album sells in the first week. It's no secret that Drake is a selling machine when it comes to albums, but this next effort might be his biggest yet. As Forbes points out, with the new RIAA rules that came into play in February, Drake's VIEWS will probably get a platinum plaque faster than he ever has before. If you recall, the RIAA rule changes now account for streaming on all services for gold and platinum certifications.
With the way that the RIAA now factors in streaming performances for songs that were released before the album, it means that Drake will already have millions of streams counted for the album the second it's officially released. As of now, his previous drops, "One Dance" and "Pop Style," have over 80 million streams on Spotify, all of which will be immediately counted for the album when it drops. As Forbes notes, 1,500 song streams on a service equals a total of one album sale under the new RIAA rules.
That's not to mention the already platinum single, "Hotline Bling," which Drake is featuring on VIEWS as a bonus track. The 400 million Spotify streams and 700 million YouTube views for the video will immediately factor into the tracking for the album, which likely guarantees that Drake is sitting on the most successful commercial album of his career.
Of course, none of these RIAA changes factor into how VIEWS will fare on the Billboard 200 album chart, though it would be a monumental upset if Drake didn't debut at No. 1, especially since he has done so with his last three solo albums. The real question is how many copies Drake will sell in the first week, and if he tops his previous high of 658,000 copies with Nothing Was the Same. Even so, it appears that he's guaranteed to go platinum either way, and quickly at that. You can check out the full report from Forbes right here, and check back later tonight for the debut of VIEWS on Apple Music.
