Kanye is a free man. Apparently West no longer has to deal with major labels interrupting his music process, and now, he doesn’t have to worry about labels telling him how to distribute music as well.
Ye took to IG to make the announcement that his upcoming DONDA 2 album would not be released on any streaming website. Instead, the album would be released through Ye’s Yeezy Stem Player, which was released late last year.
“Donda 2 will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player,” Ye captioned his post. He continued, saying “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.”
Kanye’s stem player is a collaboration between himself and tech company Kano. The stem player was released right before the release of DONDA, and features technology that enables a user to split a songs between its vocals, melody and drums. Ye had been spotted with a old version of the stem player, famously in a video where he tests the video out in front of hip hop radio legend Big Boy playing “Follow God.”
However, this wouldn’t be the first time Ye would have exclusively released his music. In 2016 for The Life Of Pablo, Ye exclusively released the album under Tidal. A few months later, the album was added to all streaming serivces.
