According to Kanye West, Apple Music’s “Donda 2” Stem Player announcement scuppered a sponsorship arrangement with the firm, which Kanye claims to have rejected down a $100 million offer from.
Donda 2 will be released on the Stem Player on February 22 and will be “only accessible” on the Stem Player, according to Kanye West’s announcement on February 18. It seems, based on his subsequent social media statements, that he is beginning to suffer the consequences of that choice.
On Saturday, Kanye West shared a Messages discussion with HipHopDX in an Instagram post “This is Damian. Please let Ye know that the sponsorship arrangement with the apple is no longer being done.”
A “Duh” followed by an eye-roll and laughing emoji was West’s response to the question.
When “Randy” from Live Nation asks for $2 million to shoot a concert, West accepts since “Apple yanked on their streaming contract,” he says in another Messages discussion.
This is what West had to say about the photograph he posted: “One of the things that fascinates me about Apple is how narrowly they see artists. To be clear, they will sit down with Daniel Ek, but not Ye.” After that, West reminisces about his encounter with Spotify CEO Daniel Ek at a bar in Stockholm.
This deal seems to include video production for a performance and an upfront payment to secure the album on the Apple Music service itself, but West does not indicate specifically how much it was worth.
While simultaneously advertising his Stem Player and railing against the music industry for making music “practically free,” West boasted in an earlier Instagram post from Friday that he “went down a hundred million dollar Apple contract.” Naturally, West does not go into depth about the trade in question or provide proof to support his assertions in any way.
Stem Player sales totaled more than $2 million in 24 hours, and the rap musician boasted on Instagram that he had added Apple to his extensive list of professional “beefs,” including Spotify, Vivendi and Universal.
On its first day of release on Apple Music, the debut “Donda” album was streamed more than 60 million times in the United States. Support from Apple, which hosted live-streamed listening events for the album, was significant despite the album’s release being pushed back.
Once, West said his firm was an Apple non-profit branch.