Kanye West has notified fans that his forthcoming album, Donda 2, which is set to drop later this month, will be released exclusively on his own platform, Stem Player.
Instead of being able to listen to the album on Apple Music, Spotify or other streaming services, fans will be required to shell out $200 to buy the music gadget and listen to the album.
The Stem Player also allows users to ‘customize any song‘ with any number of effects loaded onto the small handheld device.
Users will be able to control the vocals, drums, bass and samples and can isolate parts of the song and add new effects.
The player also has tactile effects that allows you to control certain elements of the song by using one of four ‘touch sensitive light sliders.‘
The player also comes with 8GB of storage and USB-C power and data, with the site also featuring a link to a Discord community page.
Ye in a post featuring a short clip of his music on Instagram on Thursday stated;
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.
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Donda 2 is scheduled to arrive next week on Tuesday, February 22. Ye’s Stem Player launched back in August of 2021 and was created by Yeezy Tech and Kano Computing.
Kanye’s 2016 album, The Life of Pablo was also exclusively released to a platform. After arriving on Tidal exclusively, and Kanye saying that the project would “never never never” be made available anywhere else.
However, the album was uploaded to other streaming services six weeks after its drop. This lead to a lawsuit that called the move a “deceptive marketing ploy.” The suit was eventually dismissed in 2019 after the parties involved came to an undisclosed agreement.
Speaking of Donda 2, Ye will be holding an event on the same day the project is set to drop at Miami’s LoanDepot Park stadium.
Kanye’s rep told Complex said the rapper will be performing live.
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However, while some fans took to Twitter in droves expressing their disappointment about the rapper charging an extortionate amount which many won’t be able to afford, others liked that he was waging war on streaming services.
