Kanye West Makes $2.22 Million In A Single Day From Stem Player Sales
Although Kanye West has faced criticism for his decision to release Donda 2 only on the Stem Player, it appears to have been a lucrative choice, as the rapper made more than $2 million in sales within only a day of the announcement.
Sharing with his 14.5 million Instagram followers, Kanye uploaded an image of a black background featuring white text, which revealed a breakdown of the Stem Player’s sales. In the caption, he emphasized that he made more than $2.22 million in profits (8,000 devices) within the first 24 hours following his post about Donda 2’s exclusive release.
That’s more than 20% of the Stem Player’s sales since it debuted in August 2021, as the photo revealed the device has sold $9.49 million since its release last year, whereas the net sales since shipping totalled $4.69 million.
The Stem Player resembles an MP3 player in look and some functions, including giving users the ability to download a curation of music from its online platform. But it also allows users to customize their music by changing the tempo, isolating parts of the track, and adding special effects.
The Stem Player is selling for $200 USD on its website, with shipping that promises to take only a few days. Kanye said in a separate Instagram post that 67,000 units were ready to ship out but that 3,000 were being produced each day to keep up with what he anticipated to be a high demand.
Earlier this week, we reported that Kanye – who legally changed his name to “Ye” recently – was boycotting all other streaming platforms other than his own for the releasee of his highly anticipated album, which is a follow-up (and shares the same name as) his 2021’s album Donda.
Kanye actually released the Stem Player in tandem with Donda last year, though the album was also available to stream on platforms like Spotify and Apple.
In the post explaining Donda 2’s exclusive Stem release, the rapper expressed frustration with how little of the profits artists make when they team up with streaming platforms. “Today artists get just 12% of the money the industry makes,” he wrote, describing it as an “oppressive system” that he is vowing to “take control” of.
This isn’t the first time Kanye called out streaming platforms. Earlier this month, he claimed he turned down a $100 million deal with Apple put Donda on their streaming service.
Donda 2 is set to release on February 22nd.
Sources: Instagram @kanyewest, NME,
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