Kanye West criticises streaming; plans to sell new album for $20 on his website

• Posted on March 13, 2024March 13, 2024
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Kanye West has claimed streaming is a new form of piracy and won’t be releasing Vultures 2 on digital streaming platforms.

Over the weekend, clips of Kanye West having a conversation with the YEFANATICS fan page in his Instagram DMs surfaced online, and in the message exchange, the Chicago rap legend reportedly expressed his thoughts about streaming. 

“Was talking with the team about how to release the next album. Like James Blake said streaming devalues our music. We sell albums on Yeezy.com,” Kanye said. “I got 20 million Instagram followers. When five percent of my followers buy an album. That’s one million albums sold That’s 300K more than the biggest album last year.”

He added, “We sold 1 million items on Yeezy.com on Super Bowl Sunday so we know it’s possible. How do you feel about us not streaming and only selling the album digitally.”

In another post, the person behind the YEFANATICS fan page told the rapper that a survey was conducted to determine whether fans wanted the next two instalments in the Vultures series to be released on Yeezy.com.

Eight-six per cent of people voted no to having both albums sold on Ye’s website, with the YEFANATICS boss saying the albums should be on streaming. 

However, Ye replied, “It would be nice for our community to support the albums. Streaming is basically pirating.”

Vultures 2 was supposed to arrive on Friday but ended up being delayed. Ye and Ty Dolla Sign held a listening event in Los Angeles for the album and played tracks that featured the likes of  Young Thug, Future Offset, Playboi Carti, Kid Cudi, Lil Durk, Lil Wayne and Don Toliver.

-Complex