The internet and its users, most notably the white college-age guys, have latched onto Kanye and his every move. They praise him, saying he’s a genius, a revolutionary, a legend. This quite specific yet large fanbase follow Kanye so closely that they may lead the music industry and its sales to a new format.
The Life of Pablo, along with its predecessor Yeezus, had a messy release. The (supposed) lead single “Only One” was released at the end of 2014, with other singles, including “FourFiveSeconds”, “All Day”, and “Real Friends”, sprinkled throughout 2015. The album was then announced to release on February 11th, but as the date came, nothing happened, and Kanye was doing bizarre rants on Twitter instead, we were sat here wondering if it was all a joke. It came out 3 days later as an exclusive to the streaming service Tidal, which Kanye is a partner of. Kanye then declared that he would “fix Wolves” (a song from the album), leading us to think the album was never actually finished. Even with such a disorganized release from Kanye, it was loved and given very positive reviews. “You don’t get it”, his fans said, “it’s the real, raw Kanye.”
A release like this says absolutely everything about the state of the music industry; all you really need is a dedicated fanbase and a personality. Was anyone talking about his Saturday Night Live performance? No, we were talking about his slightly offensive “Famous” lyrics and his Twitter rants. This all was so highly publicized by the music websites and blogs that are practically run by his fanbase and made his tweets and beefs the top story of the day, every day. This led to people running to Tidal to listen to the songs that everyone was talking about, or finding a way to download it (the week of its release, Pablo had been illegally downloaded over 500,000 times). With a massive album from a massive superstar, it is paving the way for others.
Kanye initially wanted Pablo to stay a Tidal exclusive without any kind of physical release. As of April 1st, the album is on Tidal, Spotify, Apple Music, and is available for digital purchase. Although Kanye has money flooding in from his successful ventures in fashion and other outlets, he lost about $10 million from all the illegal downloads his album suffered. He is a very wealthy man (despite his “$53 million debt”, which is often taken out of context) and technically did not need that $10+ million, it was still a great loss. It says that even an artist as big as Kanye cannot truly pursue his music the way he wants, if it includes making it free for everyone.
Streaming services are leading the way for the success of albums; currently, when streams are converted to sales for an album, they account for a lot more than an album’s real sales. Streaming really is the future, but it cannot survive by itself, and surely not on a single platform.
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