Drake Could Receive an Advance Worth Over $250,000,000

Record label veteran and hip-hop business aficionado Steve Stoute believes Drake, who already has an impressive net worth, is about to receive the biggest monetary advance in music history from either a record label or streaming company. 

Drake, who’s currently signed directly to Universal Music, must be set to renegotiate his contract or broker a new deal. 

Stoute believes that most of these companies looking to add Drake to their roster are willing to throw any large amount of money his way if he decides to go with them, and explained this during a recent interview with The Breakfast Club. 

“Drake is about to catch a bag,” said Stoute. “He might catch the biggest bag ever received for an individual artist from a label, [or] from anybody. He may catch the biggest bag a recording artist ever received period. Upfront.” 

Stoute went on to explain that streaming companies like Apple and Spotify would “pay him anything” to sign some type of exclusive deal. He also claims that Universal Music, his current home, would be willing to shell out an extremely large amount of money to keep him. 

Stoute said the value is not just in Drake’s music. 

“The record companies are in this spot where the biggest acts [like] the Weekend, Post Malone, Drake, they have the best deals in [the artists favor]. So the record companies biggest artists are the deals that they have the worst arrangement with. Those deals are bad but they also [use stars like Drake] to sign other artists,” explained Stoute. 

He believes record labels will be in big trouble when an artist of Drake’s caliber in their prime decides to leave a label and go directly through a distributor like Spotify. This will most likely make the smaller acts follow suit in Stoute’s opinion. 

The largest advance on record as of January 2020 is Michael Jackson’s 2010 deal brokered by his estate after his death for just a little over $250,000,000, according to NME. 

Rappers in the top 5 of largest advances ever include Drake’s mentor Lil Wayne and friend Jay-Z.