Kanye West continues to commit to his antisemitic comments. Consequentially, more and more companies are distancing themselves from him. On Friday, yet another brand which worked with the Chicago rapper has stated they will no longer be working with him.
Kano, the company behind Kanye West’s Stem Player, announced that they had dropped Ye as a client. Apparently, Kano has already started to release new versions of the device which any artist, not just Kanye, can use.
Kanye West had been Kano’s premiere client, as he used the Stem Player to release Donda 2. But now, West’s repeated bigotry has made his partnership untenable for the business. “I asked Kanye not to take the path he’s on,” said the Kano’s co-founder and CEO Alex Klein. “We’ve told him that we’re unable to work together while he’s putting out racial conspiracy theories.”
Unfortunately, Ye didn’t listen. Now, according to Klein, “There’s no deal in place.”
Kanye West tinkered with the uses of a Stem Player for a while before releasing his 11th studio album, Donda 2, solely on the device. He claimed that the Stem Player was his “own platform.” Now that personal platform is gone.
The Stem Player allowed fans to essentially mix their own tracks, controlling the levels of different instruments in each song, like the samples, bass, vocals, drums, and so on. Kanye West’s move to release the album only through the relatively expensive device didn’t just annoy some fans. Apple cancelled its sponsorship deal with West after he announced how he’d be releasing the Donda sequel.
Kano’s collaboration with Ye was fruitful, since the Donda 2 Stem Player moved 100,000 units. But according to Klein, Kano has business beyond Kanye. The CEO says that the player has remixed over a billion plays of songs, and 90% of those plays aren’t from Kanye West.
Klein has also hinted that West’s antisemitism wasn’t the only reason Kano terminated their partnership. Apparently, Kanye was possessive of the product. “Unfortunately, Kanye didn’t want to allow other musical artists onto the platform,” Klein said. “This was a disagreement that we had trouble resolving.”
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