Kanye West Says ‘No More Exclusive Releases’: Future Music Will Be Available On Multiple Platforms
No more exclusive music releases from Kanye West, the rapper has announced to streaming services. Following his major falling out with Tidal, the rapper says he’s done with exclusive releases for streaming services such as Apple and Spotify.
Kanye West is adamant to transform the modern music industry, as the rapper has just announced his future music releases will be available on multiple platforms.
The news comes following the Kanye West vs. Jay-Z beef after the latter included a diss track “Kill Jay Z” on his recent album 4:44. But it’s no ordinary rapper vs. rapper feud, as Jay-Z also happens to be the owner of Tidal.
Until now, Kanye West had dropped his music releases exclusively for streaming services to be able to stream his albums for a certain period of time before other services were allowed to jump in and stream his music on their own platforms.
But Tidal streamed Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo for way too long, and the rapper was none too pleased.
Amid a brewing money dispute between Jay-Z’s Tidal and Kanye West over the exclusive release of his latest album, TMZ reports that West is done with exclusive releases once and for all.
Infuriated over Tidal holding The Life of Pablo for way too long before other streaming services were allowed to stream Kanye West’s music, the rapper says he plans to make new music available on as many music platforms as possible from now on.
And the @TIDALHiFi drama continues. https://t.co/6A9A6ZQJC5
— HYPEBEAST (@HYPEBEAST) July 3, 2017
This solves three problems at the same time: more people will be able to listen to Kanye West music, streaming services will enter a fair competition for streams, and West will no longer have to deal with certain streaming services having limited access to his music for a long time.
As Kanye West splits from Tidal, both parties gravitate towards a messy money dispute and both Jay-Z’s streaming service and the “Famous” rapper face possible legal action.
The Life of Pablo, released in February 2016, was streamed exclusively on Tidal for a month and a half, and Kanye West got furious over the platform blocking its competitors from streaming his music for such a long time.
It sounds like Kanye's next album will be on all platforms https://t.co/hXGqeMT0U5
— XXL Magazine (@XXL) July 3, 2017
By the time Kanye West’s album was allowed to be streamed on Apple and Spotify, the rapper had re-worked some of the tracks from The Life of Pablo and even added a few more.
Although the album was an exclusive stream on Tidal, it wasn’t available for purchase or download, which generated a mammoth increase in piracy.
Less than a week after The Life of Pablo was made available on Jay-Z’s streaming service, the album was pirated around 500,000 times, according to the Independent.
Kanye West is also reportedly prepared to sue Tidal for not paying the rapper for the massive uptick in new subscribers following the release of The Life of Pablo last year. TMZ reports that Tidal pocketed around 1.5 million new subscribers following the release.
Kanye West is reportedly done with exclusive streaming releases for his music. https://t.co/WbrHotg3rL pic.twitter.com/AjPhSr1oD5
— Complex (@Complex) July 3, 2017
Kanye West also complains that Tidal reneged on reimbursing him for music videos.
Many music enthusiasts mistakenly interpreted Kanye West’s beef with Tidal as his furious response to Jay-Z’s latest album where he disses Yeezy. However, Kanye West started the money dispute against Tidal before 4:44 even saw the light of day.
Kanye West will be facing legal trouble if he chooses to go to another streaming service, as Tidal still has an exclusive contract with the “Famous” rapper.
Kanye West will reportedly sue Tidal in case the streaming service slaps him with legal action for walking away.
[Featured Image by Larry Busacca/Getty Images]
