Kanye West raises eyebrows with business plans
February 25, 2016
It seems as though we can hardly go a day without hearing about something regarding hip hop artist Kanye West. Just last week, the artist was reported to have over $50 million worth of debt and was looking to figure out how to rectify his situation. Oddly enough, it seems as though his latest album “The Life of Pablo” won’t be a part of that plan, as he’s opted to release it exclusively on the Tidal streaming service.
According to the BBC, Torrent Freak has estimated that the album has been illegally downloaded over 500,000 times since release, with that number still climbing. This is largely because no fans want to pay for Tidal. To make matters worse, even those who have subscribed to Tidal’s expensive services have expressed dissatisfaction with the sites handling of the payment process as a whole.
West himself added more fuel to the fire recently with his tweet “My album will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale… You can only get it on Tidal.”
For a man supposedly struggling with debt, West doesn’t seem too concerned about the rapidly deteriorating monetary success of “The Life of Pablo.” While he most certainly did not intend to hand out his work for free, his current business strategy does not inspire confidence. Nevertheless, West is remaining optimistic about the situation. “My dreams brought me into debt and I’m close to seeing the light of day…” West tweeted in regards to his dire financial crisis.
“Maybe he shouldn’t have spent $3,600 to fly a pizza from London to New York,” said Chelsey Jenkins, junior English major.
West also revealed a new pet project: a video game about his mother. In an interview with WWPR-FM last Friday, he revealed the game would be based on his single “Only One.” The song was inspired by a conversation with his mother, Donda West, who passed away in 2007.
“The idea is, it’s my mother going through the gates of heaven and you have to bring her to the highest gates of heaven by holding her to the light,” West said. The game is still in early developement.