Back in the day, musicians who wanted to release an album pretty much only had one path which was to sign with a record label who would help them record, market, and distribute their music. These days with technology being what it is, musicians are able to record, release, and market their music themselves.
This not only gives them more control over their songs, but also helps them to retain a larger profit since most of the money made will be going back to them as opposed to their labels. So much so that it’s not surprising to see musicians come up with new and interesting ways of distributing their work, such as musician Kanye West who announced that his next album, Donda 2, will be exclusive to the $200 Stem Player.
For those unfamiliar, the Stem Player is a music playing device. It’s more than just a music player because the onboard controls actually allows users to manipulate parts of the song while it plays, essentially giving users the ability to remix songs on the fly without additional software.
It also comes with support for USB-C and Bluetooth and a headphone jack, but there are also built-in speakers in case you want to listen directly on it. While it’s an interesting device, we have to wonder about the practicality of fans dropping $200 just for an album. We suppose if more songs were to eventually be released on it, it would make more sense, but for now it does seem like a bit of a tall order.
Filed in . Read more about Entertainment and Music. Source: theverge