When I was a kid, my dad tasked my brother and I with a fun challenge: edit The White Album* *to fit onto one CD. That meant shaving off about 14 minutes, down to a cool 80. Which songs you selected supposedly said something about what kind of Beatles fan you were, but after living with my edit for years, I can’t deny there are obvious weak spots on the original. “Don’t Pass Me By” is advice not to be followed; more than one “Honey Pie” is unnecessary; eight minutes of sound collage on “Revolution 9” is self-indulgent. Ninety-four minutes is a lot, even for the greatest pop group we've known yet.

There were four Beatles, but thankfully there is only one Drake. Earlier this year, he decided to release an 81-minute album, VIEWS. Over the course of 20 songs, Drake’s petty, jaded worldview wears out its welcome about as quickly as a Hooters waitress he shoos away in an Uber before 9 a.m. Great moments appear in just brief flashes, on undeniable high points like “Controlla” and “One Dance.” He could lose five songs easily—let’s say “U With Me?”, “Redemption,” one of the OVO collabs, the interlude, and “Fire & Desire”—and that’s generous. The cuts would also make a more understated song like “Views” get the shine it deserves. That the album is too long was a characteristic that kept coming up in discussion*, *and yet *VIEWS *was rewarded handsomely in part *because *of its bloat.

There were many factors as to why *VIEWS *ultimately broke single-week streaming records (Apple marketing dollars included), but its length certainly played a part. It’s been two years since *Billboard *modified the formula for calculating the album chart, the Billboard 200, to reflect the streaming age. In the most significant change to chart methodology in 23 years, *Billboard *incorporated SEA (streaming equivalent album) figures into the album chart in a major way: by equating 1,500 individual song streams on Spotify, Apple Music, and the like to the sale of one album. It wasn’t until this February, though, that the RIAA—the organization that awards the sales certifications often touted by highly commercial artists—shifted its policy to factor in streaming data, again with 1,500 song streams equaling one album sale. The policy change automatically awarded gold or platinum status to 17 albums, including To Pimp a Butterfly; even Kendrick’s label boss thought that was a “cheat code,” since streams and sales are inherently different beasts.

By allowing individual song streams to count towards the album tally in Nielsen and RIAA data, there is an actual incentive for Drake to tack the nearly-year-old “Hotline Bling” onto his already saggy album because “Hotline Bling” is popular, and by virtue of that fact, it will continue to rack up streams (of which it already has 573 million on Spotify alone). VIEWS’ public play counts in Spotify vary wildly among non-singles, suggesting a pattern of skipping, or at least that people aren’t consuming the LP in linear listens (don’t discount the power of the streaming playlist). The very first song, “Keep the Family Close,” is among the least-streamed *VIEWS *tracks on Spotify (around 36 million); if that’s not one sign a record isn’t being heard front to back, I’m not sure what is.

This length problem was not uncommon across pop this year (and last), *VIEWS was just the most egregious offender. The Weeknd’s 18-track, 68-minute Starboy *saw the unedited trend through to November, while Zayn’s Mind of Mine (18 tracks on the version streaming via Spotify), Ariana Grande’s Dangerous Woman (whose 15 tracks is at least three too long), and the 1975 (whose album title is as self-indulgent as its 74-minute runtime) kept it alive throughout 2016. At least when pop stars release obnoxious deluxe editions to milk the length of their record cycles, those versions can be ignored easily in favor of the originals. Are the rewards of streaming so valuable that they’d make Drake release an album that’s both mediocre and overlong?