American rapper Ye, aka Kanye West, has announced that his new album, Donda 2, is not going to be released on Amazon, Spotify, or YouTube.
Spilling the details in an Instagram post today, Ye declared that the new record will only be streaming on his own platform, “the stem player."
“You can play 4 different elements of the track: vocals, drums, bass and music. It also has a MP3 player available. We currently have 67,000 available and are making 3,000 a day,” he wrote in the post, adding that those interested could use a link in his bio to purchase Donda 2.
In another post he made earlier, Ye claimed that “today artists get just 12 percent of the money the industry makes."
“It’s time to free music from this oppressive system. It’s time to take control and build our own," he remarked, urging people to order the album from his platform.
The rapper’s announcement evoked a somewhat mixed reaction from his social media audience; while some cheered, others appear annoyed.
“What if we buy stem download the album and then it’s just the poopity scoop song again,” inquired one netizen.
“I’m poor Kanye I’m sorry I will wait for the leaks,” added another.
“Billionaire charging people $200 to listen to his music,” quipped the third.
According to a link provided in Ye’s Instagram bio, one Stem Player (the device) costs $200. The rapper’s new album is expected to be released on 22 February.
Complex magazine, however, points at a development that occurred in 2016 when another album of Kanye’s, “The Life of Pablo," was also “exclusively released to a platform, kind of.”
While the album arrived exclusively on Tidal, it was uploaded to other streaming services six weeks after the initial drop, despite Kanye saying at the time that the album would “never never never” be available anywhere else, the media outlet notes.