UPDATED 2/18, 4:42 p.m. ET: Amid announcing the Stem Player exclusive for his new album, the artist formerly known as Kanye West appears to be dealing with some potential fallout from streaming companies.
According to a text screenshot that Ye shared to IG, Apple Music was supposedly set to stream his upcoming album event in Miami but pulled the deal following his announcement that Donda 2 will not be made available to streaming services.
“I love how Apple only sees artist in only one way,” Ye captioned the post. “They’ll sit with Daniel Ek but won’t meet with Ye. I remember me and Virg were with Daniel Ek in the club in Stockholm and he told me he could tell I get more pussy than him.”
A press release provided by a rep for Ye reiterated that he passed on a $100 million Apple deal to go the Stem Player route and is taking “full ownership of his music.” Complex has reached out to a rep for additional comment.
The same release teases that West is “combining music, art, and fashion through his Donda 2 performance experience and Yeezy Gap collaboration engineered by Balenciaga.”
UPDATED 2/18, 2:35 p.m. ET: Ye took to IG again to share sales numbers for the Stem Player, a device created in partnership with Yeezy Tech and Kano Computing.
“We sold 6,217 units sense 2200-HOURS 2 17 22 which grossed $1,358,597.69,” Ye wrote of the device, which Kano CEO Alex Klein previously spoke with Complex about last year. “Thats faster than I’ve ever sold any T shirt. God has a plan. New frontier. Everyone that is supporting our revolution is changing the game for all artist. We no longer have to bow to people who don’t even truly care about music. I feel like I’m back at SOB’s performing Jesus Walks.”
You can check out the post below.
UPDATED 2/18, 7:18 a.m. ET: Ye has elaborated further on his Stem Player-focused plans for the Donda sequel. When sharing a screenshot of Donda 2 trending on Twitter overnight, Ye reiterated his recent comments about turning down an Apple deal, as well as criticized tech companies for having made music “practically free” so that artists are forced to turn to other outlets for income.
“Jay Z made Tidal and fake media attacked him,” Ye said in one post. “Well in the words of my big brother. Come and get me. I’m willing to die standing cause I ain’t living on my knees no more. God please cover me. I run this company 100% I don’t have to ask for permission. This is our 2nd generation stemplayer We have more things we working on. I feel like how I felt in the first episode of the documentary.”
Ye also wrote that he passed on a $100 million Apple deal for Donda 2. “I ain’t know what was gonna happen but I knew had to move. After 10 albums after being under 10 contracts,” his caption read. “I turned down a hundred million dollar Apple deal. No one can pay me to be disrespected. We set our own price for our art.”
Later, Ye shared what appears to be a potential Donda 2 tracklist, suggesting that the new album is currently slated to run 22 songs in length. He also shouted out J. Cole in response to the Off-Season artist’s recent words of praise over the jeen-yuhs documentary. See more from Ye below.
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The artist formerly known as Kanye West took to social media on Thursday night to notify fans that his forthcoming album Donda 2, which is set to drop later this month, will be released exclusively on his own platform, the Stem Player. The device costs $200 and allows users to customize tracks by isolating the different instruments and vocals that are featured on a song.
“Donda 2 will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player. Not on Apple Amazon Spotify or YouTube,” Ye wrote in a post made to Instagram. “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.”
Ye’s post, which you can view below, also featured a short clip of “City of Gods.”
Donda 2 is scheduled to arrive next week on Tuesday, Feb. 22. Ye’s Stem Player launched back in August 2021 and was created by Yeezy Tech and Kano Computing. Head here to read an interview AlexKlein, the CEO of Kano who invented the device with Ye, to learn more about the Stem Player and the history behind how it all came together.
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. A rep for Ye previously told Complex that it will feature a live performance. You can head over to Ticketmaster to cop tickets for the show, which is titled “Kanye West: Donda Experience Performance.” Ye previously held events at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Chicago’s Soldier Field stadium during the rollout for his first Donda album.
