Kanye West has just announced that his next album, Donda 2, will not be released on any streaming platform. The latter will be exclusive to the Stem Player, a kind of MP3 player.
To say Kanye West (officially called Ye since 2021, no last name) is eccentric sounds like an understatement. The artist’s next album, Donda 2, is due for release on February 22, 2022. But there’s no point in being impatient: the American artist has just announced his tracks will not be released on conventional streaming platforms like Spotify, Deezer or Apple Music.
$200 MP3 player
In an Instagram post, Kanye West explains that “Donda 2 will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player“. An atypical music player, not to say downright a technological UFO. The result of a collaboration with Kano computing, already available from his previous album Donda.
Smaller than the palm of a hand, this walkman could be reminiscent of the 80s and 90s if it weren’t fitted with 4 rows of LEDs that allow music to be mixed (which must be transferred from a computer) in real time. But it will therefore be necessary to pay 200 dollars to have the privilege of handling this gadget, and to access the Donda 2 album.
A new showdown with the platforms
A choice that the artist justifies, still in the same Instagram post: “Artists today only get 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», and to refer to the Stem Player sales site.
One wonders how long Donda 2 will remain exclusive to the Stem Player, since it is not the first time that the American rapper has challenged the major platforms of his industry. In February 2016, Kanye West chose to release his album The Life of Pablo exclusively on the Tidal streaming platform, before releasing it in April on Spotify, Apple Music and Google Play. To finally cancel his contract with Tidal in 2017.