Kanye West’s Donda 2 Will Only Be Available on Stem Player

Kanye West recently revealed his upcoming album Donda 2 will only be released through his own music platform called Stem Player, a $200 device which allows users to customize song sound. According to West, this decision was made because it will “free music” from the industry’s “oppressive system”.

The device looks similar to a Nest Home Mini and features intuitive touch-sensitive sliders/faders that enable users to isolate different parts of songs. It also lets users mix songs together, add loops, effects, reverse tracks and speed up or slow them down. Furthermore, The Stem Player allows owners to upload other music for use in their mixes.

Although not ideal for everyone, this product represents an exciting new direction in music distribution. Allowing songwriters to distribute their work in this unconventional manner could have significant ramifications for the industry in the future, especially if it becomes profitable for artists to monetize their content.

This marks the first time a rapper has released an album exclusively on hardware, but it’s far from being the first hip-hop artist to take such a risk. Gucci Mane dropped his debut album via Stem Player earlier this year and has stated that this will remain his strategy for all future releases.

Though the Stem Player is an entertaining concept, it hasn’t quite transformed my perspective of music production or listening. Personally, I still believe that physical albums provide more enjoyment than digital files do, plus albums can easily be re-listened to later than downloadable tracks.

Kanye West fans will be excited to know that his latest album Donda 2 will be released on February 22. It promises to be an enthralling album and worth the wait!

But there’s something about Donda 2 that doesn’t quite sit right with us. It largely revolves around the rapper’s divorce from Kim Kardashian and contains some embarrassingly cheesy lyrics (including some subtle jabs at her current flame, Pete Davidson).

That isn’t to say Donda 2 is bad or anything; it just strikes me as odd. Additionally, the fact that it can only be downloaded via Kanye West’s Stem Player doesn’t help matters either.

Donda 2 isn’t always an enjoyable listen, and there are some truly awful moments. I don’t know if this album was completed as intended or was hasty with revisions after release. In any event, the $200 price tag doesn’t seem worth it to me.

Kanye should take his Stem Player approach more seriously and provide us with some truly great music on it. However, I’m disappointed that he made Donda 2 exclusive to this piece of technology even if it was an excellent idea.