Kanye West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, is used to keeping fans and the music industry on their toes when releasing albums.
This time, however, the rapper and producer may have pulled off his most daring move yet.
After the epically drawn-out roll-out campaign for last year's Donda, which included West holing himself up in the locker rooms of Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium to complete the chronically delayed album, the artist released the sequel with little fanfare and initial reaction.
Where previously the star's lyrics and production choices would have been feverishly discussed and dissected within hours of release, today's arrival of Donda 2 has been met with a relatively eerie silence.
The key reason being that most of his global fan base are yet to hear the album courtesy of its exclusive release on tech platform, Stem Player.
Available online from $200, the gadget — currently available in the US, the UK, Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — is basically a compact MP3 player that allows you to hear and manipulate tracks through a range of features.
While one could dismiss the Gold Digger singer's latest manoeuvre as temporary — he previously released 2016 album Life of Pablo on the niche music streaming platform Tidal before making it available across major streaming sites — he does seem to be serious about his latest venture.
“Donda 2 will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player. Not on Apple, Amazon, Spotify or YouTube,” Ye said on Instagram.
“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.”
Here are four other things to know about Ye's Stem Player.
1. What is Stem Player?
It is a compact disc-sized player that allows you to be your own producer and customise songs according to your tastes.
Developed and launched by London company Kano Computing in 2021, the Stem Player breaks down songs into separate audio tracks — such as voice, bass and drums — also known as stems.
The player can be connected to your phone via Bluetooth or USB-C port to your computer, in addition to offering a 3.5-millimetre headphone jack.
Songs can also be heard through inbuilt speakers.
2. How does it work?
Using its range of controls, listeners can alter tracks by enhancing or isolating stems as well as add audio effects and loops.
After Kano Computing partnered up with Ye's company Yeezy Tech, the latest batch of Stem Players will arrive with Donda 2 already loaded to its library.
Fans will then have the rare opportunity to literally break down each of his tracks and create the album they always wanted from the mercurial artist.
Stem Player also allows you to hear and playfully mess around with other artist's tracks by uploading music to the 8GB capacity library through the official website.
Stem Player can accommodate various files including MP3A, MP4A, WAVE and FLAC.
3. Is it any good?
Initial reactions have been lukewarm so far.
PCMag gadget magazine praised the design's "fleshy texture" and functionality that allows you to build tracks with loops and effects or strip it down to "karaoke-ready instrumentals".
The Verge, however, found the hardware "less intuitive" and stated its appeal is largely limited to aspiring music producers.
4. Did it sell?
While official sales figures are yet to be revealed, the Ye hype machine is already hailing the experiment as a success.
In a since-deleted Instagram post on Saturday, Ye claimed his "first Yeezy tech product" earned $2.2 million in first day sales and "we did more revenue on Stem Player, without the album even being out, than we would have done with the album being out on streaming".
Meanwhile, Herbert Lui, author of e-book The World According to Kanye says the Stem Player shouldn't only be measured in terms of sales.
"Where Ye used to be just another artist for Apple Music and Spotify, he now gets to keep all the customer data. He'll also build direct relationships with customers, and make a lot more money on the content," he said on Twitter.
"Even if it fails, the Stem Player will be a way to recruit talent for Yeezy Tech, learn how to roll out technology hardware products, and serve as a Yeezy case study to get funding from Silicon Valley.”
