Kanye West Says He Won’t Be Releasing Vultures 2 on Streaming Services: “Streaming is Basically Pirating”

Over the weekend, leaked DMs between Kanye West and the YEFANATICS fan page hinted that the rapper won’t release Vultures 2 on DSPs, asserting that streaming is a form of piracy.“I was talking with the team about how to release the next album. Like James Blake said, streaming devalues our music. We sell albums on Yeezy.com,” Kanye tweeted.

“I got 20 million Instagram followers. When five percent of my followers buy an album, that’s one million albums sold That’s 300K more than the biggest album last year.”

He added, “We sold 1 million items on Yeezy.com on Super Bowl Sunday, so we know it’s possible. How do you feel about us not streaming and only selling the album digitally.”

Kanye West Says He Won't Be Releasing Vultures 2 on Streaming Services

(Photo by Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

In a subsequent message, the individual behind the YEFANATICS fan page informed the rapper about a survey, indicating that 86% of respondents opposed releasing the next two parts of the Vultures series on Yeezy.com. The YEFANATICS representative recommended opting for streaming platforms for the albums instead.

“It would be nice for our community to support the albums. Streaming is basically pirating,” Ye’ replied.

He later tweeted that Vultures 2 will be available on Yeezy.com for $20, suggesting that streaming platforms negatively affect the music industry.

Vultures 2 experienced its second delay after the initially scheduled Friday release. The first installment of Vultures faced at least three delays before officially being released on February 8.