Kanye West took a huge financial hit due to
the poor roll out of his new album The Life of
Pablo. His latest work has been pirated and
downloaded so many times since its release that
the rapper has lost $10million in sales. This all
comes at a time when West has claimed he is
$53million in debt.
The New York Post reports that if the 500,000
people who illegally downloaded the album in its
frist day had paid the $20 it cost to buy the
album West would have personally made
$10million.
Kanye revealed on Monday that his album will
never go on sale and will only ever be available
on Tidal, the digital music service which is
subscription based and owned by his friend Jay
Z and other music artists.
'My album will never never never be on Apple.
And it will never be for sale... You can only get it
on Tidal,' wrote Kanye on Twitter.
'Please to all my friends fans and music lovers.
Sign up to Tidal now.'
Tidal costs $10 to $20 a month, with fans able
to get their first month for free.
West may be able to make up that $10million he
lost in album sales though, as fellow rapper The
Game said he would give him that exact amount
as an investment if he came to Dubai to skydive
with him on Thursday.
West has yet to respond to this offer.
On Monday, West also expressed his anger
towards Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, New York Times
over their reception of his new album.
It was a bit surprising considering Pitchfork gave
his album a very good 9/10 rating, Rolling Stone
has given the work extensive coverage and the
Times wrote in their review; 'Now his rapping is
sparser, more pointed, less imagistic and more
emotional. And when he truly needs to be heard,
he can corral a dream team of collaborators.
He’s so fluent that he can use others to speak
for him, and be understood clear as day.'
On that same night he also called Puff Daddy
'the most important cultural figure in my life,'
said that white people 'don't understand what it
means to be the great grandson of ex slaves'
and also noted that the 'system is designed for
colored people to fail and one of our only voices
is music.'
Kanye's rant came on the same night as the
Grammys, where he was nominated for four
awards including one for Best Album for his work
producing the Weeknd's Beauty Behind the
Madness. He lost in all four of his categories.
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