On Thursday, Kanye West took a break from posting about his personal life to promote his upcoming album Donda 2, which is due for release on Feb. 22.
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As a result, fans questioned whether the sequel will face similar holdups, but it appears that it is full steam ahead for Donda 2 to come out next week.
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Unfortunately there is one condition, and Kanye, who changed his name to Ye last year, sparked backlash yesterday when he revealed that his album will only be available via his product, the Stem Player, which costs $200.
Making a stand against streaming platforms, Ye told his Instagram followers that his new device is his way of taking back control from the “oppressive” music industry.
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“Donda 2 will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player. Not on Apple Amazon Spotify or YouTube,” he wrote. “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.”
Ye then urged fans to visit the website to order their player, which ships with a copy of Donda 2 — but fans were horrified when they saw the hefty price tag.
In fact, many said that the $200 expense was enough to make them boycott Ye's album, despite how much they’d been looking forward to hearing it.
Dimitrios Kambouris
“Not buying,” one simply commented on Ye's Instagram post. While another shared: “😂😂😂 and just like that I'm not listening nomo,” a sentiment seemingly shared by many as the comment racked up over 3,000 likes.
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“Quite possibly the biggest ‘fuck you’ I’ve felt as a Kanye fan,” a third put-out follower wrote on Reddit. One more argued: “You don’t like streaming services, cool. Sell the album on your own website. Only sell physical copies, whatever. But to make it only available on a new piece of technology that costs $200? That is beyond absurd and there’s absolutely no way to justify that. All he’s doing is hurting his own fans.”
“200 dollars for an album is ridiculous Kanye 👎🏽” a commenter wrote. “Fuck you, Kanye,” added another, with the remark getting more than 7,000 likes.
“Lots of people currently struggling to make it monetarily and a billionaire wants to charge mostly poor people $200 to listen to some songs. What an asshole,” one more said.
Other fans vowed to illegally pirate the album instead of spending the cash, with one writing: “Expecting fans to cough up $200 each whilst being incredibly wealthy? nah I’ll catch it on thepiratebay cya.”
Dimitrios Kambouris
“Never been more ready to illegally download something in my life,” a second agreed. “KANYE, I AM NOT SPENDING $200 FOR DONDA 2. I'LL FIND THAT SHIT ONLINE 😡🤬” another warned.
