Kanye West turns down $100 deal with Apple Music, calls it oppressive

American rapper Kanye West has turned down a 100 million dollar deal with Apple. He has announced that his forthcoming album "Donda 2" will not be unveiled on Apple Music, it will be exclusively available on his own Stem Player device. West slammed Apple and other music streaming apps for undervaluing artists. In a series of Instagram posts, West slammed Apple, saying "no one can pay me to be disrespected".

Kanye West had announced Donda 2, his forthcoming album, on February 18, 2022. He said in an Instagram post that artists get a fraction of the money that Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify, and YouTube make by selling their songs. "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," he posted on his Instagram account.

Donda 2 is a sequel to his hit album Donda, which garnered a record-breaking 60 million streams on Apple Music within the first 24 hours. However, the sequel will not be released on Apple Music, but it will be out on West's own streaming player, which is called the Stem Player.

In a separate tweet, DJ Akademiks posted on Twitter saying, "Apple pulls a 2 million+ sponsorship deal from Kanye West after he announced that he won't be putting Donda 2 on Apple Music. They were going to stream the 2/22/22 event.

West added Apple to his list of career "beefs" which included Spotify, TikTok, Disney, Jeff Bezos, Barack Obama, Black History Month, and "the whole cast of SNL."

For the unversed, West's Stem Player is not actually a streaming giant. It is in fact a small music-playing device that lets users split songs into stems, the website states. It is priced at around $200 (approx Rs.15,000 without shipping charges). The Bluetooth device lets users control the vocals, drums, bass and split the songs into several parts. The device has an in-built storage of 8GB, it also features a USB-Type C port, Bluetooth, 3.5mm headphone jack, and a 97db speaker. It was launched by Kanye West last year in collaboration with Kano Computing.