Apple Wants Kanye West’s Troubled ‘Swish’ Album: What About Rihanna’s ‘R8’?
Kanye West‘s album campaign for SWISH hasn’t gone well so far. The critically acclaimed, but publicly despised performer hasn’t scored a decent hit from the album, despite the fact that the first single “Only One” was released on January 1. However, according to Buzzfeed, Kanye West is in official talks to debut his new album on Apple Music.
“Sources familiar with Apple’s new music-streaming service tell BuzzFeed News that when the company rolls Apple Music out to the public, it will indeed do so with limited or ‘windowed’ exclusives from some big-name artists. And one artist it’s been pursuing aggressively with the help of Beats Music co-founder Jimmy Iovine — now an Apple employee following the company’s $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics last year — is Kanye West.”
Buzzfeed indicates that West and Jimmy Lovine, who is heading the music service, have been talking for awhile, but haven’t been able to reach a deal. While some see this as good news, others are skeptical due to the PR disaster Apple caused for itself and U2 last September.
“As divisive of a figure as Kanye is, one can only imagine the public reception if Apple pulls a similar stunt for SWISH,” Consequence of Sound says.
Can you just imagine what Kanye West haters would do if they saw an album from him on their iPhone or laptop? It’s also possible that using Kanye West can hurt Apple’s brand, which is in absolute top form right now.
However, it’s possible that the continued good publicity over Apple’s new music service could help Kanye turn his bad fortunes around. One wonders if a deal with Rihanna would do the same. So far, the campaign for Rihanna’s R8 has been an absolute disaster, with her latest single “American Oxygen” tanking and the previous single, “B***h Better Have My Money” only peaking at No. 17 — that’s bad in Rihanna’s world. It also doesn’t help that Rihanna is one of the biggest names in Jay-Z’s disastrous Tidal service, which has become a sinking ship.
Perhaps Rihanna is trying to change the direction of the album. Vibe recently reported she is teaming up with dancehall artists in Jamaica. This could either help turn the album around or be another huge mistake for the star, who used to dominate the pop music world with hit after hit.
Rihanna isn’t as divisive as Kanye West and her catalog still sells well on iTunes. It wouldn’t be surprising if we hear about an Apple Music deal with Rihanna very soon.
[Photo Credit: Consequence of Sound]
