Since announcing that his new album ‘Donda 2’ will only be available via his own Stem Player, Kanye West reckons that he’s sold more than $2 million worth of the devices.Initially that sounds like quite a lot of money.
Though that’s equates to sales of around 8000 devices. Which means only a relatively small number of fans are willing to fork out $200/£200 to hear the new record in the days or more likely hours (minutes?) before it hits piracy sites.West announced last week that his new album – due out tomorrow – will only be available via the physical device he launched last August, which allows users to play back and remix his music.“’Donda 2’ will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player.
Not on Apple, Amazon, Spotify or YouTube”, he wrote on Instagram on Friday, before setting out the rationale for that decision: “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”.Of course, even with all the recent Spotify dissing, it seems unlikely that any new artist-led movement will be able to sustain everyone releasing albums on devices that cost $200 a pop, but I guess that’s not the point.
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