Apple May Have Just Thrown A Ton Of Money At Drake

Yesterday, we learned that Drake was supposed to part of Jay Z's TIDAL.  But he dropped out at the last moment, likely because he got a call from Jimmy Iovine, who is heading up Apple's own move into streaming music.

That conversation may have involved millions of dollars.

The New York Post reports Drake is in talks to join Apple as a "Digital DJ", a post that could pay him up to $19 million.

Pharrell and David Guetta have also been approached to join the computer giant in a similar capacity.

Like TIDAL, Apple's soon-to-be launched Beats streaming music service isn't expect to have a Spotify-like free tier.

In addition to trying to round up talent, Apple has also been pressuring the record labels to pull their music from YouTube, and to force Spotify to abandon their free tier.

So Jimmy Iovine wasn't necessarily trying to steal Drake to do in Hov. Drizzy was probably viewed more as a well paid soldier in Apple's real battle: The one against free music merchants Spotify and YouTube.