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American rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, released his album Donda half a year ago and within weeks it was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America having sold over 500,000 copies in the United States. It was made public that Ye is working on Donda 2 in Jan 2022 — the first ever sequel he's produced to an album — which will be released on Feb 22. As the date draws close, the 'Stronger' singer released a statement that the new album will only be available on his Stem Player, a pocket-sized gadget he launched in conjunction with Donda last year.

"Donda 2 will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player. Not on Apple, Amazon, Spotify or YouTube," he captioned the post. He explained why he decided to restrict the streaming, saying he wants control over his own music. "Today artists get just 12% of the money the industry makes. It’s time to free music from this oppressive system. It’s time to take control and build our own."

Ye posted another video of Stem Player, explaining its features. "Donda 2 will only be streaming on my own platform, the Stem Player. You can download new music from stemplayer.com. You can play 4 different elements of the track: vocals, drums, bass and music. It also has a MP3 player available. We currently have 67,000 available and are making 3,000 a day. Go click the link in my bio to purchase," he captioned the post.

Some fans are disappointed while others are rushing to get their hands on the gadget, resorting to demonstrations on YouTube to understand how it works.

The 22-time Grammy winner has currently got a lot of hype around him due to the upcoming album and the messy aftermath of his divorce with reality TV star Kim Kardashian.