With Kanye West’s new album Donda 2 set to arrive soon, his biggest fans are anticipating the music that Ye will serve up, including clever production and various guest appearances.
However, Ye shocked fans with an announcement about the availability of his project. Following several weeks of Ye’s controversial social media posts, it appears popular streaming services won’t have the album.
Instead, those who want to listen to Ye’s Donda 2 will have to use Stem Player, and despite boasting some interesting features, it brings a hefty price tag to use it to hear the new album.
Kanye West announces Donda 2 only on Stem Player
Based on Kanye West’s comments on Thursday, Donda 2 won’t be on popular streaming services, including Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube, when it drops. The sequel to his popular Donda album has a slated release date of February 22.
“Donda 2 will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player. Not on Apple Amazon Spotify or YouTube,” Ye wrote on Instagram, saying, “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.”
The Flashing Lights rapper shared a one-minute video in his Instagram post featuring new music along with the Stem Player and its vibrant light display.
The Stem Player is available for a purchase price of $200, which isn’t sitting well with many fans who have been waiting for the new album. A YouTube video (below) demonstrates the small handheld player’s various features.
They include changing the volume of instruments, looping parts of a song, speeding up or slowing down the song, playing it in reverse, splitting songs into stems, and using other effects. Based on the website’s details, the player supports various music formats including MP3, MP4, WAV, and AAC. In addition, it includes 8GB of storage and USB-C power and data cable options.
The video shows off what the Stem Player can do and includes some snippets of Kanye West songs and other songs.
This isn’t the first time Kanye West has made a project exclusive to a specific listening method. His album Life of Pablo was exclusive to the Tidal streaming service in February 2016. An updated version of the album was made available on West’s website and other streaming services that April.
Kanye shares Donda 2 tracklist
Also on Instagram, West shared what appears to be a working tracklist for Donda 2 written in black ink or marker on a notepad. There are no guests listed in the tracklist, and the song Eazy is not included, seeming to indicate it will be on The Game’s next album or was a standalone release by the two artists.
Based on the tracklist below, Donda 2 will have at least 21 songs and possibly 22. Among the selections are True Love, Selfish, Do I Look Happy, and Things Change. Quite possibly, there will be a few mentions of Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson in these songs.
Kanye’s been in the studio and linked with various artists over the past several months as he’s been working to get Donda 2 released. They include Moneybagg Yo, Marilyn Manson, The Game, Pusha T, and Blueface.
Fans react to Ye’s Donda 2 availability announcement
As one might expect, finding out that a $200 player is the only way to listen to Kanye West’s Donda 2 didn’t sit all that well with many people who have become accustomed to hearing Ye on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Music.
One fan pointed out how Kanye said it was “time to free music,” yet he’s limiting the availability of his album to only those who purchase a $200 device to hear it.
Another fan asked Ye not to do this, saying they already pay for Spotify Premium service to listen to his music.
“Wait so I’ve been putting up with all of this Instagram stuff just to figure out I won’t even get the music,” a disappointed commenter wrote.
One commenter praised Kanye as a “marketing god” for all the publicity he’s gained recently ahead of the widespread Netflix release of his documentary, Jeen-Yuhs, and Donda 2.
In the past month or so, Kanye has been extremely active on Instagram as he’s made it no secret that he wants his family back and has issues with Pete Davidson. The Saturday Night Live star has been dating Kim Kardashian, Kanye’s estranged wife, after she was a guest host on SNL in October.
West referred to Davidson in the song Eazy with The Game, as he rapped, “God saved me from that crash. Just so I could beat Pete Davidson’s a**.” Another reference to Davidson and SNL popped up in the Fivio Foreign song City of Gods featuring Kanye and Alicia Keys.
“Now it’s time to give ’em hell. Ask my staff, I pay ’em well. This afternoon, a hundred goons pullin’ up to SNL,” Ye rapped in part of his verse.
In the past week, Ye asked fans not to harm Davidson, saying he’d handle the situation himself. He also shared text messages that appeared to be between him and Kim K. In those messages, Kim was telling Kanye it was scary how he involved the fans in his feud with Davidson.
Ye has also shared numerous Instagram posts aiming at Davidson and a previous segment from SNL where Davidson joked about Kanye’s mental health. In addition, he’s shared several IG posts about his situation with his kids and Kim K but has deleted all of those posts shortly after they were on his Instagram.