Kanye has been in the news lately. No matter what he says or does, it seems that the rapper is always on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Kanye West recently announced his Donda Stem Player, a strange gadget from which we will be able to reproduce and personalize the songs of the artist using the touch controls. However, now the news is different, since Kanye does not want his new music to be on Apple Music, Spotify or any other streaming music platform. The goal of the artist is that he only hears it from the Stem Player.
This has been announced by the singer from his official Instagram account. Here, he comments that “Donda 2 it will only be available on my own platformthe Stem Player”. He also categorically rules out that the album will be anywhere else, leaving the options quite limited for those who want to hear it.
Kanye West assures in his post that this movement is to get out of the “oppressive system” that the platforms of streaming; while ensuring that the artists they only receive 12% of the profits achieved through the aforementioned platforms. However, Kanye’s Stem Player is quite high priced, reaching $200 on its official Web. So in this case, how blurred is the line between receiving fair compensation, and making your music a privilege?
Donda 2 It will only be available on my own platform, Stem Player. Not on Apple, Amazon, Spotify or YouTube. Today the artists receive only 12% of the money that the industry earns. 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 it.
Kanye West, Instagram
However, Kanye West has a point
Although the way Kanye West plans to overthrow the service system streaming don’t appear to be the most assertive; the artist is certainly making a very real point. The compensation that musicians and singers receive through platforms such as Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube is an almost ridiculous amount.
In 2014, American singer Taylor Swift removed his entire discography from Spotify. A movement that took the music industry by surprise, and on which Swift herself declared that “artists should not undervalue their art”, and that they should set the prices they consider fair for their music. At the time of the facts, Spotify used to pay between 0.008 and 0.006 dollars for each reproduction; an extremely small number compared to physical album sales and purchases through services like iTunes.
At the end of 2021, rapper T-Pain revealed on his official Twitter account the number of views an artist needed to reach a single dollar. According to the table, YouTube, Pandora, Spotify and Amazon Music were among the most unfair; offering one dollar for every 1,250, 752, 315 and 249 reproductions, respectively. Likewise, on the other side of the graph we had Napster as the fairest, offering a dollar for every 53 plays, followed by Tidal Music with 78 plays, Apple Music with 128 plays; and Deezer with 156.
The reality is that artists have not benefited much from streaming platforms on a monetary level; especially when we talk about those of medium or small level. Of course, the democratization of music has served so that many of them can reach more people worldwidebut certainly at the cost of offering his art at a significantly undervalued value.
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