Drake Signs Expansive Deal With Universal Music Group That Could Be Worth Around $400 Million USD
Covering everything from recording music to visual projects.
Drake has signed a new deal with Universal Music Group covering “multiple creative lanes and revenue streams.”
Universal Music Group chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge confirmed the news during the label’s Q1 earnings call, stating that The Boy’s wide-ranging deal includes recordings, publishing, merchandise and visual media projects. Labelled by the music executive as “expanded portfolios,” Variety reports that an insider called the deal “LeBron-sized” and could be priced at around or higher than $360 million USD after Drizzy hinted at the signing with the bar “Three-sixty upfront, it all comes full circle,” which appears on the Scary Hours 2 cut “Lemon Pepper Freestyle.”
A 2021 report from UBS Research named Drake as one of Universal Music Group’s 2021 “re-signings”; the label supposedly spent €1.52 billion EUR to acquire music catalogs and pay artists their advances in the previous year.
In late April, The Weeknd also inked a long-term deal with Universal Music Group that covers recording music, merchandise, video production and publishing.
Elsewhere in music, Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers could be released as a double album.
