Chance the Rapper says Apple Music paid him $500,000 to exclusively release Coloring Book

Chance the Rapper says Apple paid him $500,000 and paid for a promotional commercial to release his last mixtape, Coloring Book, as an exclusive on Apple Music for two weeks. The declaration came in a tweet this afternoon, as fans questioned Chance’s independence as an artist — a staple in his young career — given that the world’s largest corporation backed his last project.

Chance’s admission is the first time we’ve gotten concrete numbers on the payments Apple gives to artists for exclusive content. Back in 2015 it was reported that Drake received $19 million from Apple Music in his deal, which included a radio show on Beats 1 and becoming the de facto face of the streaming service.

I think artist can gain a lot from the streaming wars as long as they remain in control of their own product. https://t.co/6agVO3uIdf

— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) March 17, 2017

As for the other players in the streaming world, Tidal gave each of its artist-owners a 3 percent stake to incentivize them to release exclusives on the service — and those stakes have become considerably more valuable now that Tidal is worth $600 million. Spotify doesn’t pay for exclusive content, and the terms of Amazon’s deal with Garth Brooks have not been disclosed.

We’ve reached out to Apple for comment.