MUSIC: Kanye West’s album The Life of Pablo is a sensation, but not available for download on Apple Music or free streaming on Spotify.
By Avelina Maier, Staff Writer
Kanye’s West’s new album, The Life of Pablo has been in high demand ever since its release on February 11, 2016. After fans waited patiently for the album to come out, West shared with his fans via Twitter that his album will never be available on Apple nor will it ever be on sale:
The album will only be available to stream on Tidal, the music streaming service owned by his friend and fellow rapper Jay-Z, and West’s own website. Following this announcement, he encouraged his fans to download the app. His wish was their command. With thousands of purchases, Tidal hit the top of the App Store, which exposed major problems with the service. Due to so many purchases of the album, many customers payed 20 bucks a pop for West’s album and didn’t even receive a link for the download. In some cases, their credit card was charged more than once. In addition to double-billing the price of the album, they were also double-billed a $1.00 fee which itself was not explained. After the issue was brought to light, West redirected his link to purchase the album back to his own website.
This isn’t the first time artists have pulled their masterpieces from Apple—Taylor Swift pulled her catalog from Apple Music last summer over payment concerns, which Apple addressed to get her back again—but West seems to be more interested in promoting his friend’s business rather than promoting his album.
This bold and somewhat strange choice Kanye made in terms of his album availability has stripped his chances of ever being on the Billboard chart. The album’s absence is due to its current (and perhaps permanent) status as a Tidal exclusive. “Billboard has been informed that Tidal is not currently reporting streams for tracks on Kanye’s album to Nielsen Music,” Silvio Pietroluongo, vice president of Billboard’s charts and data development said, “Therefore, streams from Tidal for this title will not contribute to Billboard’s chart rankings at this time,” he concluded.
It’s certainly ironic that a man who wants to change the world with his art is limiting its distribution. Time will tell if West will go back on his word and distribute The Life Of Pablo more widely.