Kanye West's 'Vultures 1' briefly pulled from Apple Music after distributor drama

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited February 16

Kanye West's new "Vultures 1" was pulled from Apple Music, after the artist abused automated systems to have it posted to streaming services without the distributor's blessing.




West has been working with digital music distribution service Fuga for some time to distribute his music. Fuga's service takes artists' music, and does the heavy lifting in distributing the tracks to services like Apple Music, Spotify, and others.

It appears West uploaded the album to the distributor anyway, knowing that automated services would do the uploading on behalf of Fuga anyway.

"Late last year, Fuga was presented with the opportunity to release Vultures 1. Exercising our judgment in the ordinary course of business, we declined to do so," Fuga shared in a statement to Variety on Thursday. "On Friday, February 9, 2024, a long-standing Fuga client delivered the album Vultures 1 through the platform's automated processes, violating our service agreement."

"Therefore, Fuga is actively working with its DSP partners and the client to remove Vultures 1 from our systems," the service added.

We have not been able to find responses from West's publicists to the matter, to any venue. For the moment, the album remains on Spotify, but removal seems imminent.

Some singles from the album remain on Apple Music. They were uploaded by Label Engine, another music distribution service.

The removal from Apple Music is the second action taken against "Vultures 1." Previously, "Good (Don't Die)" was removed after the Donna Summer estate complained about West using a Summer track without permission, and infringing on copyright.

That track was pulled on February 14.

West has come under fire lately for antisemitic remarks. He's also previously wrestled with technology with him complaining that the FCC should look into things after Apple Pay was disabled when it was a bank action instead, and revealed to a camera in the Oval Office that his iPhone password was "000000."

On the other hand, West broke records on Apple Music. "Donda" set records in 2021 with more than 60 million streams by Apple Music users.

Update February 16, 6:47 AM ET "Vultures 1" has been restored to Apple Music. The album is now being distributed by Label Engine.



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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    OferOfer Posts: 241unconfirmed, member
    This nazi sympathizer needs to stop being given so much attention 
    williamlondonchasmnapoleon_phoneapartbaconstang9secondkox2drdavidAulaniNickoTTrobin huberstevenoz
  • Reply 2 of 12
    thinkman100000000thinkman100000000 Posts: 80member
    3 very sick men are eating up 75% of the daily news cycle. West, Musk, Trump. The media is 100% to blame for giving these horrific men the pulpits to spread their hate, non-sense, and pure evil. Those of you caught up in their nets are inexcusable sycophants. At some point these hitlar-ian voices must crumble from the weight of their own insanity and hopefully take their follower with them.
    badmonkchasmnapoleon_phoneapartwilliamlondonOferthtbaconstang9secondkox2drdavidAulani
  • Reply 3 of 12
    pjohntpjohnt Posts: 31member
    thinkman100000000 said:
    3 very sick men are eating up 75% of the daily news cycle. West, Musk, Trump. The media is 100% to blame for giving these horrific men the pulpits to spread their hate, non-sense, and pure evil. Those of you caught up in their nets are inexcusable sycophants. At some point these hitlar-ian voices must crumble from the weight of their own insanity and hopefully take their follower with them.
    Musk evil?  You don't have to like the guy but I'm not sure how you could possibly think he's somehow an evil person.  That's insane 
    williamlondon9secondkox2CluntBaby92watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 12
    AppleishAppleish Posts: 692member
    Also, he's a Nazi who should be universally de-platformed.
    9secondkox2OferAulaniwilliamlondonolswatto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 12
    drblankdrblank Posts: 3,385member
    pjohnt said:
    thinkman100000000 said:
    3 very sick men are eating up 75% of the daily news cycle. West, Musk, Trump. The media is 100% to blame for giving these horrific men the pulpits to spread their hate, non-sense, and pure evil. Those of you caught up in their nets are inexcusable sycophants. At some point these hitlar-ian voices must crumble from the weight of their own insanity and hopefully take their follower with them.
    Musk evil?  You don't have to like the guy but I'm not sure how you could possibly think he's somehow an evil person.  That's insane 
    Well, Twitter under previous management wouldn't tolerate Trump and West's hatred, disinformation, lies, etc. but Musk supports it, and he even adds a little fuel to their gaslighting.   Musk wanted Tesla to pay him $58 Billion in compensation, yet Tesla only made $10Billion in EBIT, and only has about $29 Billion in cash/investments.  I don't care if you spit diamonds out of your keister,  no one should be allowed to get $58 Billion in compensation.   Which is about the amount Musk has dumped into X to keep it up and running.   I also think Musk is running a Ponzi scam with Tesla.  No other publicly traded company that I know of allows the CEO to use their stock in the company as collateral for a personal loan.  That's simply wrong on so many levels.  IF the stock price goes down and the stock used as collateral is worth less than the loan amount due, then the Bank can take the shares and dump them to recoup their loan.   That poses a HUGE risk to shareholders.  
    baconstang9secondkox2OferNickoTTwilliamlondonwatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 12
    longfanglongfang Posts: 456member
    pjohnt said:
    thinkman100000000 said:
    3 very sick men are eating up 75% of the daily news cycle. West, Musk, Trump. The media is 100% to blame for giving these horrific men the pulpits to spread their hate, non-sense, and pure evil. Those of you caught up in their nets are inexcusable sycophants. At some point these hitlar-ian voices must crumble from the weight of their own insanity and hopefully take their follower with them.
    Musk evil?  You don't have to like the guy but I'm not sure how you could possibly think he's somehow an evil person.  That's insane 
    Just cause he chucks cylindrical objects into earth orbit doesn’t mean he can’t also be an evil man. 
    He has gone out of his way to vilify someone for pointing out the absurdity of his “rescue” torpedo the way Donald went after the central park 5.  That qualifies him as being on the evil side. 
    baconstang9secondkox2OferAulaniwilliamlondonwatto_cobradrdavidmichelb76
  • Reply 7 of 12
    9secondkox29secondkox2 Posts: 2,727member
    sooo... a musician is "not allowed" to sell music on the popular platforms?

    Ridiculous.

    Hope this gets sorted pronto.
  • Reply 8 of 12
    drdaviddrdavid Posts: 90member
    9secondkox2 said:
    sooo... a musician is "not allowed" to sell music on the popular platforms?

    Ridiculous.

    Hope this gets sorted pronto.
    This is the logic of an Alex jones listener. If you think the government is making gay frogs then this makes sense. And if you think “aktualy Alex was kinda right” then the transformation is complete. 
    Xedwilliamlondonchasmwatto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 12
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,861administrator
    9secondkox2 said:
    sooo... a musician is "not allowed" to sell music on the popular platforms?

    Ridiculous.

    Hope this gets sorted pronto.
    No, but its certainly not ethical for a musician to use automated services from a company that told him not to, and doesn't want to do business with him, to post that music on streaming services.

    There's a lot wrong with the music industry, but this isn't nearly what you seem to be saying it is.
    muthuk_vanalingamXedwilliamlondonchasmstevenozwatto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 12
    robin huberrobin huber Posts: 3,964member
    In 18th century London, the moneyed classes paid to be admitted to the Bethlehem (Bed’lam”) asylum in order to observe the antics of the mentally ill for their entertainment. In our more “enlightened” times the media does this for us by incessantly reporting the antics of this individual with a serious and largely untreated mental illness, parading his naked wife around the world like an organ-grinder’s monkey. It’s shameful to cover this sick behavior as clickbait. Selling his “music” is enabling him. 
    edited February 16 JanNLwatto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 12
    exsangusexsangus Posts: 29member
    pjohnt said:
    thinkman100000000 said:
    3 very sick men are eating up 75% of the daily news cycle. West, Musk, Trump. The media is 100% to blame for giving these horrific men the pulpits to spread their hate, non-sense, and pure evil. Those of you caught up in their nets are inexcusable sycophants. At some point these hitlar-ian voices must crumble from the weight of their own insanity and hopefully take their follower with them.
    Musk evil?  You don't have to like the guy but I'm not sure how you could possibly think he's somehow an evil person.  That's insane 
    Please say that your incridulity to Musk being labeled evil is sarcasm.
    chasmdrdavidwatto_cobramichelb76
  • Reply 12 of 12
    chasmchasm Posts: 3,306member
    I’m afraid I don’t buy music from self-loathing anti-semites, but hopefully Fuga will take him to court for his willful mischief, and reap some of the money from his royalties.
    watto_cobra
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