Kanye West has revealed his next album Donda 2 will be released exclusively on his £200 Stem Player platform that enables listeners to customise the sound, add effects and remix the songs.
West said he is eschewing streaming services like Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify and YouTube Music because of what he sees as the music industry’s oppression of artists.
The rapper pointed out that only 12% of revenue the industry coins in ends up in the pockets of artists and sees the Stem Player as a means of regaining control and breaking the system. The album is out on February 22.
In a post on Instagram, the soon-to-be-former Mr Kardashian wrote: “Donda 2 will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player. 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. Go to stemplayer.com now to order.”
If you buy the Stem Player now, it’ll arrive with the Donda 2 album built right in. The Stem Player is an interesting little MP3 player-like gadget that enables users to transfer their music via USB. The platform is also able to split songs into stems representing drums, bass, vocals and music, which can be isolated during playback.
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It’s shaped like a Nest Home Mini and includes a number of buttons and sliders for mixing tracks, adding loops and effects, while its also possible to save tracks to the device when you’re done playing around. You can also download your mixes to a companion device.
It’s got a small speaker, as well as a 3.5mm jack and Bluetooth connectivity, while it also supports a wide range of audio formats. There’s 8GB of available storage for your music too.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
