Kanye West To Release Donda 2 Via Stem Player, Apple Pulls Sponsorship

Kanye West, who has been the subject of countless headlines over the past few weeks in light of his divorce proceedings with Kim Kardashian, has not forgotten about his forthcoming album Donda 2. The Future-produced album, which is due Feb. 22, is getting the same live treatment as 2021’s Donda, with an event happening on release day in Miami, Florida. However, fans who cannot attend the event may not be able to listen to the album unless they purchase West’s $200 Stem Player.

The device, which rolled out alongside Donda, came preloaded with the album and allowed for fans to easily remix their own music and West’s in a handy device. In the early hours of Friday, Feb. 18, the rapper took to Instagram to share some important news about his new album:

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 elaborated further on his reasoning behind the decision after noticing the device trending on Twitter: “I turned down a hundred million dollar Apple deal. No one can pay me to be disrespected. We set our own price for our art.” Shortly after, West shared a text message screenshot confirming that Apple has pulled their sponsorship deal with him. Apple previously hosted all three of West’s listening parties for Donda on their Apple Music platform.

Below, revisit his latest single “Eazy” and purchase tickets for the Donda 2 event here.