Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, announced on Instagram that his upcoming album ‘Donda 2‘ will only be available on Stem Player, his own platform. The artist clarified his music won’t be available elsewhere, including Apple, Amazon, or Spotify. 

Ye justified his reason for the exclusive streaming choice, 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”.

However, it is unclear whether people need to pay extra to download the new album. 

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Notably, Ye’s comments come at a time when Spotify is facing backlash from the artist community that has noted the stark difference in the $200 million deal the streamer has with podcaster Joe Rogan, and the deals they individually have with Spotify. 

The Stem Player, which costs $200, was launched last year to coincide with the release of ‘Donda’. In another of his posts, Ye noted that 67,000 of them were already available and they were making 3,000 more each day. Further, Ye explained, “You can download new music from stemplayer.com. You can play 4 different elements of the track: vocals, drums, bass and music. It also has a MP3 player available”. 

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Ye’s stance on artist exploitation has been iterated elsewhere in another of his posts, where he said he turned down a hundred million dollar Apple deal. The ‘Stronger’ singer said, “No one can pay me to be disrespected. We set our own price for our art. Tech companies made music practically free so if you don’t do merch sneakers and tours you don’t eat”. 

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This is not the first time Ye is foraying into exclusive music either, ‘The Life of Pablo’ came out only on Tidal in February 2016. At the time, the artist had noted it would never be on sale and wouldn’t be on Apple either. However, on April 1 that year, it launched on Apple Music, Spotify, and Google Play. The Verge also reported that Ye had to settle a lawsuit from a fan, who said they signed up for Tidal due to its exclusivity. 

At the moment, ‘Donda 2’ is slated to release on February 22.