Dr. Dre’s ‘Compton’ Album Streamed 25 Million Times in First Week

Dr. Dre is straight up winning this week. In addition to the Straight Outta Compton biopic that he co-produced reaching No. 1 at the box office for its opening weekend, Apple Music announces Compton, his first album in 16 years, was streamed 25 million times during its first week of release.

The album, which features music inspired by N.W.A. and the film, also had half a million downloads through iTunes. Although it's not clear whether these numbers reflect the amount of complete listens or if it also incorporates listeners who heard only a few songs, this is a great feat for The Chronic creator, considering the album was released solely through Apple Music.

Other major players in the game have earned higher streaming numbers but their albums were released on multiple platforms like Spotify, Google Play and TIDAL. Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late LP had 48 million streams during its first week in February while Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly album topped at 39 million streams during its initial release in March.

"We're beginning to show what we can do in terms of communicating music to a worldwide audience and helping artists at the same time," Jimmy Iovine, who co-founded Beats Electronics and helped launch Apple Music, told The New York Times.

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