Kanye West reportedly turned down a sponsorship deal with Apple worth $100m for the exclusive streaming rights to his forthcoming album, “Donda 2,” which now won’t be available on any music streaming service, coming only to his physical branded Stem Player, priced at $200.
In an Instagram post now deleted by Ye (formally known as Kanye West), Billboard reports how the rapper touted how he has sold 39,500 Stem Players to date — with total net sales topping $8.6 million. The post follows after Ye claimed during a screening of his Netflix documentary that he turned down a deal worth $100m for Apple Music exclusivity of the new album, saying “it ain’t about the money.”
Billboard writes, “during a screening of his Netflix documentary Jeen-Yuhs last weekend, the rapper claimed that the service offered him $100 million for exclusive Donda 2streaming rights. “I got offered $100 million by [Apple Music’s] Larry Jackson to put Donda on Apple, but I ain’t never got a meeting with Tim Cook,” he said at the event. “So it ain’t about the money, it’s about our power and our respect collectively.”
Apple set records with the release of Ye’s first Donda album, so it’s not surprising the company wanted the second version to be available exclusively on the platform. Other details on the reported sponsorship deal are unknown but likely included more than streaming rights exclusivity.
Kanye is no stranger to Apple. In 2018, the rapper made an impromptu visit to Apple’s Georgetown retail store where he climbed onto the store’s wooden product table to give a “keynote” to customers.