The way the largest music streaming portals operate is considered by many to be controversial. Artists more and more often mention that the financial amounts made available to artists in exchange for listening to their works are too small in relation to the total amount of money earned by streaming portals. Kanye West, one of the most famous musicians in the world, is of a similar opinion, and he is planning an unusual campaign in which his upcoming album will not be available on the largest streaming portals.
Kanye West officially decided to criticize the current system. In an official post by West, he mentions that artists only receive 12 percent of the money earned in the streaming industry. To draw attention to this problem, he decided to release his upcoming album "Donda 2" on the proprietary Stem Player platform. Stem Player is a platform closely related to a special physical player costing 200$. By purchasing such a player, recipients can listen to the library available on Stem Player and freely mix songs from the library having access, among others, to concrete musical parts in a song played with the use of specific instruments. West has sworn his latest album will not make it to the most popular streaming services, but he has changed his mind about his release plans in the past. In 2016 West's album entitled "The Life of Pablo" was released exclusively on Tidal and Kanye announced that it would be available for listening only on Tidal. Four months later, however, the album went to libraries of other services, such as Spotify or Apple Music. Will Kanye keep his word this time? Time will tell.