There will be no more CDs from Kanye West. CDs are done. They’re gone. The era of the jewel-case CD is dead and buried. Kanye has told us.
Kanye unleashed a few more tweets early this morning – now officially his preferred medium for announcements/content/grand philosophical pronouncements – in which he argued that he will never make a CD again. It’s all streaming from here on out (read: Tidal)
I was thinking about not making CDs ever again… Only streaming
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) March 7, 2016
uuuuuuum, so there it is… No more CDs from me
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) March 7, 2016
He says that Yeezus clear, plain packaging was “an open-casket funeral to CDs”, which he followed with “r.i.p”. It’s all very, very sad.
Streaming music is the way the industry works now, and Kanye’s announcement (which will possibly be revoked at his leisure) is a pretty big salvo in favour of streaming-only. It’s pretty damn rare to see a major artist swear off physical releases.
And this doesn’t just mean you’re not picking up a CD off the rack at Sanity – this means you’re probably not getting a digital release outside of streaming services (read again: Tidal).
Then again, streaming music now makes up a third of the US music industry’s revenue. Looks like Kanye is just riding the tide.
Source: Twitter
Photo: Getty Images / JP Yim
