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Topic: Kanye West launches "Stem Player": 8GB music player with 4 channel mixing option (Read 9960 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: Kanye West launches "Stem Player": 8GB music player with 4 channel mixing option

Reply #25
Ye’s ‘Donda 2’ Ruled Ineligible for the Billboard Charts — Here’s Why

Rapper Ye debuted his latest album, Donda 2, on exclusive hardware. The move makes the album ineligible for the Billboard charts.
24 hours after announcing that Donda 2 would be exclusive to the Stem Player, Ye revealed $1.3 million in Stem Player sales. The $200 proprietary music player allows owners to remix songs as they listen. As of February 18, Ye says he has sold 39,500 Stem Players so far, netting just shy of $9 million for the album’s debut.

“While that revenue far surpasses what an artist can earn from streaming or sales in the same time period, one thing this release strategy will not be earning Ye is placement on the Billboard charts,” the organization clarifies.

“That’s because the album is being sold with a device that can be used for other means besides the playing of the album. As such, the Stem/Donda package would fall within Billboard’s latest merch bundle policy, where albums sold with merchandise are not chart eligible.”

https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2022/03/08/ye-donda-2-billboard-charts/
EZ CD Audio Converter

Re: Kanye West launches "Stem Player": 8GB music player with 4 channel mixing option

Reply #26
within Billboard’s latest merch bundle policy, where albums sold with merchandise are not chart eligible.”

Not unexpectedly, I'm not getting Billboard to agree with me that LPs are merch  ;)
But there is something about that in the policy update: https://www.billboard.com/pro/billboard-new-chart-rules-no-more-merch-ticket-bundles/ . (Or likely: here for google cache version or here for archive.ph.)

Billboard cracks down on "get the download now and the LP when it is pressed". OK, there could be reasons for that, but look at the justification:
Only when the physical item — ostensibly what the consumer is buying — is shipped, will it be counted in Billboard’s official tallies.
Right. Because, "ostensibly what the consumer is buying", is the physical merchandise part of it, and that is what is charting (who cares about the frickin' music?)

Re: Kanye West launches "Stem Player": 8GB music player with 4 channel mixing option

Reply #27
SUPPORTS:
.AIFF .AIF .FLAC .M4A .MP3 .WAV .WAVE .AAC .ALAC .MP4

Obliviously the web site created by someone who knows little about music.

Or they are trying to appeal to an audience they don't expect to be literate in all this nonsense. Which I applaud. Sometimes we need to step outside of our microcosm and realise that regular people need to listen to music too. To most, the file extension (if they even know what that is) is the format.

Re: Kanye West launches "Stem Player": 8GB music player with 4 channel mixing option

Reply #28
within Billboard’s latest merch bundle policy, where albums sold with merchandise are not chart eligible.”

Not unexpectedly, I'm not getting Billboard to agree with me that LPs are merch  ;)
But there is something about that in the policy update: https://www.billboard.com/pro/billboard-new-chart-rules-no-more-merch-ticket-bundles/ . (Or likely: here for google cache version or here for archive.ph.)

Billboard cracks down on "get the download now and the LP when it is pressed". OK, there could be reasons for that, but look at the justification:
Only when the physical item — ostensibly what the consumer is buying — is shipped, will it be counted in Billboard’s official tallies.
Right. Because, "ostensibly what the consumer is buying", is the physical merchandise part of it, and that is what is charting (who cares about the frickin' music?)

LP is not exclusive to vinyl. LP has been synonymous for 'album' since I was born. In fact, where do you think the term 'album' comes from?

And I disagree, vinyl should most certainly count towards sales, as now we seem to be excluding the tens of thousands of vinyl-only releases that happen every year.

Weird to be so against a music format that a lot of people appear to enjoy. But holding up 'Billboard' as an arbiter for quality or integrity I think shows how far apart we are on this subject.

Re: Kanye West launches "Stem Player": 8GB music player with 4 channel mixing option

Reply #29
And I disagree, vinyl should most certainly count towards sales
Please read what you are commenting to. The questionable part is how Billboard
* insists that music shall be offered alone without a physical item, or it will not be counted at all towards the charts,
but inconsistently
* refuses to chart music based on sale and delivery of music, insisting on delivery of ... a physical item.


holding up 'Billboard' as an arbiter for quality or integrity I think shows how far apart we are on this subject.
I was holding up Billboard.com as a source of how the Billboard charts are compiled.


In fact, where do you think the term 'album' comes from?
Shellac 78 rpm discs bound together like a photo album, for example this.

Re: Kanye West launches "Stem Player": 8GB music player with 4 channel mixing option

Reply #30
It's not what Ye intended unless it has MQA
Loudspeaker manufacturer

Re: Kanye West launches "Stem Player": 8GB music player with 4 channel mixing option

Reply #31
I've seen worse gimmicks, at least this one is functional and might amuse someone as a toy.

There was that time Pink Floyd put a flashing LED in their CD package, and Tool bloated their latest album by putting an LCD screen and speaker in it.

Re: Kanye West launches "Stem Player": 8GB music player with 4 channel mixing option

Reply #32
Essentially, it's a device which we thought was entertaining. It's an idea of Storm Thorgerson's which related to Dark Side and the pulse, and it's a live album so the box is "alive". After that, in terms of seriously deep meanings, one might be struggling a bit.

The LED surely was gefundenes Fressen for negative reviewers, but I liked it. It fit the design, I could "turn it off" by turning it around in the bookshelf the next day - and it didn't cost anything near 200.

But this was a bit more expensive:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/VWGolfPinkFloydCloseup.jpg

Re: Kanye West launches "Stem Player": 8GB music player with 4 channel mixing option

Reply #33
I don't really like Kanye's music but man what a stupid decision to package an album with what is essentially a skin puck.