Even amid all the personal drama clogging up headlines, Kanye West fans have been looking forward to the release of the rapper’s newest album, Donda 2. But that excitement came to a screeching halt this week when Ye announced on Instagram that the album would only be available on a Stem Player, which costs $200.
Ye’s social media post said, “Donda 2 will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player. Not on Apple Amazon Spotify or YouTube. Today artists get just 12% 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. Go to stemplayer.com now to order.”
The album is scheduled to launch on Tuesday, February 22nd.
Many of West’s fans were not happy about the announcement.
“Bruh I’m paying for Spotify Premium to listen to your music, don’t do this to me,” one person wrote.
“Kanye cmon please don’t do that,” another pleaded.
“U R a billionaire” another commenter observed.
The $200 Stem Player launched last year in tandem with the first Donda album. The Verge reported that the device was able to manipulate any song using the touch-sensitive light sliders embedded in the unit.
Stem Player isn’t the “Gold Digger” artist’s first foray into exclusive content, either. The publication noted how Ye released “The Life of Pablo” exclusively on the platform Tidal in 2016. At the time, West said the album “will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale.”
Then in April of that year, “The Life of Pablo” became available for streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play. One fan sued the artist for misleading them into signing up for Tidal thinking that was the only way to access the music.
Plenty of other artists have been restricting their music for various reasons, with several removing their libraries from Spotify following the Joe Rogan controversy. Singer India Arie mentioned how she too was unhappy with the amount musical artists got paid for their music from major streaming platforms.
Arie was the first to remove her music from Spotify for reasons other than “COVID misinformation.”
“What I am talking about is RESPECT. Who gets it and who doesn’t,” the “Magic” singer said. “Paying musicians a fraction of a penny and [Rogan] $100M? This shows the type of company they are and the company that they keep. I’m tired.”
As for fans looking forward to “Donda 2,” they’re still unclear what to expect or when to expect it. Ye’s first Donda album was delayed two months. West also insinuated that Kid Cudi would not be collaborating on the music for his latest work as originally planned because of his friendship with “Saturday Night Live” cast member Pete Davidson, who is currently dating Ye’s estranged wife Kim Kardashian.
“The reason I asked Cudi to at the least speak to Skete is because for years Cudi always made it seem like it was me and him against everyone,” Ye wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post. “Now that I’m fighting for my family he not by my side this is bigger than music.”
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