Kanye swears his new album will never come to Apple Music or iTunes

AppleInsider · February 16, 2016 1:38AM

In what increasingly feels like a well-orchestrated public relations stunt for Tidal, the saga of Kanye West's latest album continued Monday evening with a promise from the rapper that The Life of Pablo will 'never be on Apple.'

"My album will never never never be on Apple," Yeezus wrote on Twitter. "And it will never be for sale... You can only get it on Tidal."

Earlier in the day, West released and then pulled The Life of Pablo from his own website. He then begged his fans to sign up for Tidal, saying Jay Z's streaming service would get a one-week exclusive.

The promo appears to have worked -- at least temporarily -- as Tidal surged to the top of the iTunes charts.

There's no indication how serious Kanye is about long-term exclusivity, or for that matter whether he has the authority to make that call on his own. Like many of Tidal's other backers, Yeezy has complex distribution and rights arrangements with major labels that make wider availability more likely down the road.

matrix077 · February 16, 2016 1:43AM

It's all PR stuffs for his album and Tidal. Remember some rapper that said Earth is flat on twitter just when he released his new album?

jonl · February 16, 2016 1:46AM

Promises, promises.

jkichline · February 16, 2016 1:48AM

Good. Don't need that crap cluttering things up.

robin huber · February 16, 2016 1:48AM

One more reason to hate this media creature.

jungmark · February 16, 2016 1:49AM

Stop giving this egomaniac a platform.

charles1 · February 16, 2016 1:51AM

What an idiot. His tidal app IS "on Apple." I just checked, a pirated copy of his album is already available via Torrent. But it's never going to be on any of MY computers.

Apparently Kanye thinks he's as smart as Steve Jobs. Maybe he should read Jobs' famous essay "Thoughts on Music" that points out why it is futile to try to lock customers to a platform, like Kanye wants. And it points out that if piracy is easier than buying a legitimate copy, people will pirate it.

lethomp · February 16, 2016 1:59AM

Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

cali · February 16, 2016 1:59AM

matrix077 said:

It's all PR stuffs for his album and Tidal. Remember some rapper that said Earth is flat on twitter just when he released his new album?

You're right! For a month this guy has been making hip-hop headlines. From his beef with Wiz Khalifa to liking fingers up his butt, the news won't stop and it all relates to his album.

sdw2001 · February 16, 2016 2:00AM

I absolutely can't stand this man. He's the only person mocked by South Park to be portrayed as better than he actually is. He's been a disgrace for more than a decade, with notable assholish moves like stealing the spotlight from Taylor Swift and accusing George Bush of being a racist. But worse, his "music" sucks. Saw him on SNL the other night, and I truly believe it was one of the worst performances of all time on that show. It was like some teenagers got high on shrooms and starting dicking around with auto tune while dancing around as if they were severely concussed. I can't even stand the look on his face. He's a smug, self-obsessed hack who is famous for being famous at this point. Good riddance!

ndflyer · February 16, 2016 2:08AM

Who cares?

robin huber · February 16, 2016 2:10AM

New meme. Resting stink face.

lowededwookie · February 16, 2016 2:20AM

Do you mean the same Kanye asking people for money?

http://www.macworld.com/article/3033457/software-social/kanye-west-begs-zuckerberg-page-for-money-over-twitter.html

What's funny is he asks Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, for money over Twitter.

Are we sure this guy isn't meaning he won't sell is album over Tidal? What a putz.

edited February 2016

5150iii · February 16, 2016 2:20AM

sdw2001 said:

I absolutely can't stand this man. He's the only person mocked by South Park to be portrayed as better than he actually is. He's been a disgrace for more than a decade, with notable assholish moves like stealing the spotlight from Taylor Swift and accusing George Bush of being a racist. But worse, his "music" sucks. Saw him on SNL the other night, and I truly believe it was one of the worst performances of all time on that show. It was like some teenagers got high on shrooms and starting dicking around with auto tune while dancing around as if they were severely concussed. I can't even stand the look on his face. He's a smug, self-obsessed hack who is famous for being famous at this point. Good riddance!

Nailed it!

anantksundaram · February 16, 2016 2:21AM

Some please help me out. Who's Kanye West?

macky the macky · February 16, 2016 2:23AM

sdw2001 said:

I absolutely can't stand this man. He's the only person mocked by South Park to be portrayed as better than he actually is. He's been a disgrace for more than a decade, with notable assholish moves like stealing the spotlight from Taylor Swift and accusing George Bush of being a racist. But worse, his "music" sucks. Saw him on SNL the other night, and I truly believe it was one of the worst performances of all time on that show. It was like some teenagers got high on shrooms and starting dicking around with auto tune while dancing around as if they were severely concussed. I can't even stand the look on his face. He's a smug, self-obsessed hack who is famous for being famous at this point. Good riddance!

Unfortunately this site only allows one "Like" per reader. Here's 10 internets for your post.

Kanye West: An ego as as oversized as his wife's nether regions.

braderunner · February 16, 2016 2:42AM

BEST NEWS ALL DAY!!!!

stevenoz · February 16, 2016 3:15AM

Kanye has tweeted that he is $53 million in debt... for unpaid taxes? To whom?

He pleads that you buy into Tidal... so he is doesn't drown in his debts. Poor guy. /s

revenant · February 16, 2016 3:16AM

i guess he got that loan then from facebook or google if he does not have to sell it on iTunes to recoup his $50 mill debt

boltsfan17 · February 16, 2016 3:16AM

As if anyone cares.

tnsf · February 16, 2016 3:23AM

I wish people (and media!) would stop assuming that app downloads = new subscribers. I'm sure a very very large portion of people who downloaded the app will never pay Tidal a penny.

Kanye swears his new album will never come to Apple Music or iTunes

Comments