Drake has withdrawn his legal action accusing Spotify and Universal Music Group (UMG) of artificially boosting streams of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” a filing reported by Billboard and viewed by Pitchfork shows. The withdrawal comes less than two months after Drake took multiple legal actions against parties also including iHeartRadio, alleging that various sections of the music industry conspired to make Lamar’s diss track a hit.
The withdrawal of Drake’s New York petition follows a counter-filing from Spotify that unequivocally rejected the claims and called the action a “subversion of the normal judicial process.” UMG also denied the claims. In the new filing, Drake’s company Frozen Moments LLC said it would voluntarily withdraw the action “without costs to any party.”
A separate action, in Bexar County, Texas, against UMG and iHeartRadio remains pending. That contained two separate claims: that UMG should have blocked the song’s release, on the basis that it “falsely [accused] him of being a sex offender, engaging in pedophilic acts, harboring sex offenders, and committing other criminal sexual acts”; and that UMG funneled payments to iHeartRadio in a pay-to-play promotional scheme that violates the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
While the new filing states that “Spotify has no objection to the withdrawal and discontinuance,” UMG has “reserved its position.” Pitchfork has emailed each company’s respective representatives for comment.
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