March 8 has come and gone, and surprising literally no one, Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign’s second part of Vultures is nowhere to be found. According to a Kanye fan account on Twitter, YeFantatics, he seems to be looking into a pure direct-to-consumer sales approach, keeping the album off of streaming entirely and just seeling it through his website Yeezy.com.
“Like James Blake said streaming devalues our music,” he insisted, according to a tweet from YeFanatics, relaying a private conversation on Instagram. We sell albums on Yeezy.com. I got 20 million instagram followers. When 5% of my followers buy an album [t]hat’s 1 million albums sold[.] That’s 300k more than the biggest album last year. We sold 1 million items on Yeezy.com on Super Bowl Sunday so we know it’s possible. How do you feel about us not streaming and only selling the album digitally[?]”
Ye: Was talking with the team about how to release the next album
Like James Blake said streaming devalues our music
We sell albums on https://t.co/KZ5lBI5zfMI got 20 million instagram followers
When 5% of my followers buy an album.That's 1 million albums sold
That's 300k… pic.twitter.com/oIFK89A9Ki— YEFANATICS (@yefanatics) March 10, 2024
Truth be told, it’s not a bad idea. More and more artists have been enjoying the freedom and ownership that comes from alternative distribution methods, with platforms like Even allowing fans to more directly support artists without go-betweens like Spotify taking a big cut and paying out the artists pennies on the dollar.
However, let’s be honest; Kanye is probably only “debating” this avenue because it’s the only one open to him at this point. While he previously told YeFanatics the album was delayed because he and Ty are “in the lab” (and it wouldn’t be the first time he’s overshot deadlines over last-minute tweaks to his projects), there’s another possible reason. After all, Vultures 1 was a streaming beast and even some money is better than no money for a project that isn’t out yet.
When he decided to sneak his album out via a connection at FUGA, it doesn’t seem that he considered that the distributor wouldn’t be happy about it and would inevitably plug the leak. Making it a three-part release then burning his backdoor to release only the first part of it was poor strategy on his part — but then, you can’t really expect solid long-term planning from a guy who torched a billion dollars in endorsement deals to prove a point.
At least there’s always the Stem Player… right?
Ty Dolla Sign is a Warner Music artist. .
