Drake Gave Up Half A Million By Delaying His "Scorpion" CD Release

CDs still exist, you know. There was over a billion dollars worth of them sold in the US last year.

Yet Drake didn't drop one for his last project, the "playlist" More Life. He did for Scorpion, but he delayed the release, costing him at least $500,000.

Industry insiders believe Drake would have moved between 250,000 and 300,000 Scorpion discs fist week if it had dropped on June 29th, the same day as it hit streaming services. But he delayed the physical release until July 13 and it will only end up doing between 50 and 80K.

“What Drake is doing is walking up to a table and seeing two bags of money, one with $100,000 on it and one with $500,000 on it and choosing to leave the larger bag of money on the table,” says a music retailer to Billboard, assuming $2 per CD in royalties.

Drake's reason for the delay may be twofold. To get a CD out on your drop date you obviously need to manufacture and distribute it in advance, and that increases the likelihood of leaks and bootlegging. One label head added that Drake wants streaming records more than he wants another half a million in revenue.

It will all be moot soon. Best Buy just stopped selling CDs, Target is limiting them, and it's hard to believe there will be any stores you can buy a compact disc in five years time.