Now if you want to listen to new songs, due to the ownership of copyright, many people are accustomed to downloading different apps and becoming members of different apps. But if you want to hear Kanye West's new album, you'll have to buy a $200 Stem Player player.
Kanye recently announced on social networking sites that his new album Donda 2, which will be released on Feb. 22, will only be available on his own platform, Stem Player, not on Apple, Amazon, Spotify, or YouTube. At the end, the path to purchase is also indicated.
▲ Image from: Instagram
Stem Player is a music player from Yeezy Tech in collaboration with Kano that sells for $200 on stemplayer.com (if you want to go shopping for one, it might cost around $1,800). This compact, silicone-wrapped round device allows users to download new music from stemplayer.com for playback.
▲Image from: stemplayer.com
Judging from the usage videos released by people who have owned Stem Player in advance on social platforms, in addition to the 97db speakers, 3.5 MM and USB-C jacks, etc., there is a different place, that is, the four touch sensor bars on the top.
▲ Image from: YouTube
Not only can users listen to music with Stem Player, but they can also swipe these touch sensor bars to control vocals, drums, basses, and sampling sections, and personalize the music to their liking. Kanye says there are currently 67,000 devices, with a daily production of about 3,000.
At a time when a lot of music is going to streaming, why is Kanye "going off the beaten path"? This may be evident from what he has previously posted on social media.
Kanye had previously mentioned on social media that he had rejected Apple's 100 million contract, but did not mention details about the deal. A message was sent to Randy from Live Nation about his willingness to accept Randy's offer to pay $2 million for the show, and that Apple had canceled their streaming deal.
Kanye has also said that singers only get 12% of their income from their work, and he wants to revolutionize that.
In the past, singers mostly relied on record companies to produce and distribute music products such as CDs, but the emergence and development of streaming media has changed this situation. Some singers even own streaming platforms, such as Tidal, which singer Jay-Z invested in.
▲ Image courtesy of Tidal
But Kanye argues that these tech companies are offering music almost for free and that they won't get their expected revenue without sneakers and tours. It can be seen that Kanye's "maverick" is for singers to have greater voice and autonomy in the streaming era.
▲ Image from: getty images
It is worth mentioning that this form of musical work and playback equipment "bundled" is not uncommon. In 2005, Jay Chou cooperated with MP3 manufacturers to launch the global limited edition of 2000 J III MP3, with Jay Chou directly involved in the design of the shape and acting as a spokesperson. The fuselage panel is set with 65 Swaroski diamonds, and the back panel has Jay Chou's autograph engraved by lasers.
▲Image courtesy of YesAsia
Each J III MP3 has a unique serial number, exclusively including the theme song "Drift" and the interlude "All the Way North" composed by Jay Chou for the movie "Head Text D", three original DEMOs, and the built-in Jay Chou personally recorded emotional messages. But in the end, the sales of this product did not seem to be ideal.
In the highly competitive K-pop market, in order to sell albums, many idol groups' albums will be accompanied by lyric books, singer photo cards, and other accessories that fans consider collectible in addition to physical CDs. Some artists or groups also launch a "Kihno Kit" that combines physical CDs with music files in digital format when releasing new albums.
▲ Image courtesy of Kihno
In addition to playing the tracks on the album, "Kihno Kit" can also eliminate vocals to make its own cover version, limited release, exquisite design, and some tracks that may only be included in the Kit version, which also has a certain collectible value in the eyes of fans, so it is also popular in the K-pop music market.
For most listeners, it is most important to hear new songs, and the budget paid for it is not high. Other than songs, usually only fans will choose. After Kanye announced that he was going to launch Stem Player, some people expressed expectations and others wondered, using $200 to buy a screenless player to listen to his new album, and the price-performance ratio seemed unreasonable. Others said they were looking forward to online leaks.
Although the needs of listeners, singers and music distribution platforms have the same part, the difference seems to be even greater, and as for how to balance the relationship between the three, it seems to be an unsolvable problem at present.