Jordan O'BrienDespite CD sales shrinking at a slower rate than digital downloads, Kanye West is ready to go fully digital with the rapper revealing as much in one of his infamous ‘tweetstorms’.
Kanye, who has sold more than 21 million albums worldwide, says that his last album cover for Yeezus was an ‘open casket’ at the CDs funeral. That’s not all that surprising considering the album received a lukewarm response from consumers, with it having sold just 750,000 units since its release in 2013.
The rapper’s latest album Life of Pablo has already been released through streaming service Tidal, but questions remained whether it would see a physical release. Kanye put those questions to rest by claiming that he will never release another CD and that CDs are ‘dead’.
While Tidal is partially owned by Kanye, the rapper has suffered from an appalling uptake for his latest album. It has been reported that the Life of Pablo had been pirated 500,000 times within just days of its release, supposedly losing Kanye $10m.
Due to Tidal not sharing stream information with chart companies, the album also failed to chart – the first time Kanye’s album has failed to break the Billboard 200.
It’s not just CDs that Kanye has snubbed either. The rapper confirmed that vinyl and other streaming services will also never see the Life of Pablo.
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