Kanye West Confirms You’ll Only Be Able To Stream ‘Donda 2’ One Way

If you were looking forward to listening to Kanye’s upcoming album Donda 2 on a platform you were familiar with, we’ve got some bad news for you. Not only will the new Kanye album not be available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, or YouTube, but you’ll need to buy his US$200 (AU$280) Stem Player speaker to hear it.

The announcement by Kanye about the Stem Player comes just days before Donda 2 was set to be released – which was slated for February 22nd – with the rapper teasing a snippet of one track on an Instagram post. His motivation is tied to what he sees as an unfair portion of the money made by artists going to just a few streaming giants, a monopoly he appears intent on disrupting.

“Donda 2 will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player,” Kanye said in his post.

“Not on Apple Amazon Spotify or YouTube. 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.”

RELATED: Kanye West’s ‘Donda’ Has Finally Dropped

This isn’t the first time Kanye has used the release of a new album to promote a new listening service. Tidal was launched by Jay-Z back in 2015 and Kanye was one of the first artists on the platform, exclusively releasing his 2016 album The Life of Pablo on the audio streaming service. It worked, boosting the subscribers on Tidal from 1 million to 2.5 million in just ten days.

The Stem Player isn’t simply a Bluetooth speaker, instead offering owners the chance to control various elements of the music, including the vocals, drums, bass and samples. The device also promises users to be able to isolate parts of a track and add effects, as well as real-time looping and speed control.

If Kanye is your GOAT, $280 for a speaker isn’t the end of the world. However, casual fans of his music are unlikely to drop a decent chunk of change on a new music device just to listen to one album.

Check it out at the link below.