J. Cole’s fifth album, KOD, has broken Apple Music’s record for streams in the first 24 hours in the US with 64.5 million streams on its first day, Apple tells The Verge. KOD surpassed the previous record holder, Drake’s Views, by nearly 1 million streams. Seven out of the top 10 most streamed songs in a 24-hour period on Apple Music are now from KOD.
Apple Music pulled in 66 percent of the first-day streaming market share for KOD in the US, and 60 percent worldwide, continuing its run of major first-week streaming totals when it comes to hip-hop and R&B artists. Somehow Apple Music — which has 120 million fewer users than Spotify — continues to give its top competitor trouble with releases in the world’s most popular genre of music.
Spotify hasn’t officially released its streaming totals yet, but data from the streaming service’s global chart says KOD was streamed 36 million times in the US in the first 24 hours. That may or may not be accurate, given how the numbers for The Weeknd’s latest EP were handled. With Apple Music expected to pass Spotify in users in the US sometime this summer, it’s likely more and more records will fall as Apple’s growing dominance in the world’s largest music streaming market continues to increase.
