UPDATE (Feb. 15 at 4:16 p.m. EST): Vultures 1 has returned to Apple Music.
ORIGINAL STORY:
Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures 1 album has been removed from Apple Music after five days on the streaming service.
Vultures 1 was taken down from Apple Music on Thursday afternoon (Feb. 15) without any explanation as to why.
The project was also wiped from iTunes and scrubbed from the Apple Music charts, where the Rich The Kid and Playboi Carti-assisted “CARNIVAL” had held the No. 1 slot on the Top 100: Global chart. However, “CARNIVAL” has since been added back as a single to Apple Music and YouTube Music.
Earlier on Thursday (Feb. 15), Billboard reported that the album’s distribution company FUGA — a business-to-business tech and distribution platform for labels — had plans to work with DSPs to take the project off streaming in its entirety.
“Late last year, FUGA was presented with the opportunity to release Vultures 1,” a FUGA spokesperson said in a statement to Billboard. “Exercising our judgment in the ordinary course of business, we declined to do so.”
The spokesperson continued: “On Friday, Feb. 9, 2024, a long-standing FUGA client delivered the album Vultures 1 through the platform’s automated processes, violating our service agreement. Therefore, FUGA is actively working with its DSP partners and the client to remove Vultures 1 from our systems.”
The FUGA spokesperson didn’t clarify whether the company would help facilitate a transfer to another distributor.
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While Apple Music has removed the project, Vultures 1 remains on other streamers like Spotify and Amazon Music as of press time.
However, the project faced its first streaming issues on Wednesday (Feb. 14) when Spotify removed “Good (Don’t Die)” from its platform due to claims of “copyright infringement” made by Donna Summer’s estate. The electro-pop deep cut appears to interpolate elements of Donna Summer‘s 1977 hit “I Feel Love” on the pensive chorus, and the estate says it didn’t approve of its use.
“Kanye West… asked permission to use Donna Summer’s song I Feel Love, he was denied… he changed the words, had someone re sing it or used AI but it’s I Feel Love… copyright infringement!!!” the estate wrote in an Instagram Story on the official Donna Summer account Saturday (Feb. 10).
Amazon Music followed suit with the removal of “Good (Don’t Die)” on Thursday (Feb. 15), and it appears more Vultures fallout is on the horizon.
Billboard has reached out to Apple Music and West’s reps for comment.
