Kanye West took to social media on Thursday night to notify fans that his forthcoming album Donda 2, which is set to drop later this month, will be released exclusively on his own platform, the Stem Player. The device costs $200 and allows users to customize tracks by isolating the different instruments and vocals that are featured on a song.
“Donda 2 will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player. Not on Apple Amazon Spotify or YouTube,” Ye wrote in a post made to Instagram. “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.”
Ye’s post, which you can view below, also featured a short clip of music.
Donda 2 is scheduled to arrive next week on Tuesday, February 22. Ye’s Stem Player launched back in August of 2021 and was created by Yeezy Tech and Kano Computing. Head here to read more about the Stem Player and the history behind how it all came together.
Kanye’s 2016 album The Life of Pablo was also exclusively released to a platform, kind of. After arriving on Tidal exclusively, and Kanye saying that the project would “never never never” be made available anywhere else, the album was uploaded to other streaming services six weeks after its drop. This lead to a lawsuit that called the move a “deceptive marketing ploy.” The suit was eventually dismissed in 2019 after the parties involved came to an undisclosed agreement.
Speaking of Donda 2, Ye will be holding an event on the same day the project is set to drop at Miami’s LoanDepot Park stadium. A rep for Kanye previously told Complex that it will feature Ye performing live. You can head over to Ticketmaster to cop tickets for the show, which is titled “Kanye West: Donda Experience Performance.” Ye previously held events at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Chicago’s Soldier Field stadium during the rollout for his first Donda album.