When Kanye West rants about something he’s passionate about, you better believe the whole world is paying attention.
On Saturday, West send a series of tweets explaining why the music game is “fucked up,” as he put it. He claimed music streaming services are holding back access to a younger generation of fans who just want to hear good music, regardless of what platform it is on. He added that one way to fix the problem is to get Apple Music CEO Tim Cook, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, Jay Z, Jimmy Iovine, Scooter Braun, and more in the same room or on the phone to discuss their plan of action.
On Sunday afternoon, Kid Cudi agreed with Kanye’s tweets, saying, “This is why the game is fucked up.” He elaborated on his comment by explaining that wealthy influencers in the game just want to get richer, and stated that the industry hasn't been about the music for a long time.
This hasn’t been the first time an artist has spoken about exclusives as a competitive edge to draw more subscribers. Last year, Taylor Swift famously wrote an open letter on Tumblr to Apple Music criticizing the lack of royalty payment in its new service. After expressing her frustration over the terms of Apple’s three-month trial, they listened to her and offered to pay artists, record labels, and publishers for streams during the trial period. Their beef came to an end when Swift announced she would allow 1989 to stream on Apple Music over any of their competitors, which was a huge get at the time.
Maybe ‘Ye and Cudi’s words won’t fall on deaf ears. Braun is certainly paying attention.
