Here it is, folks: Kanye West has announced that he is done with CDs. All future Yeezy albums will be only available via streaming.
Despite other music artists, like Adele and Taylor Swift, combating current music streaming models, Kanye, who has promised fans another album later this summer, began the week today by tweeting, "I was thinking about not making CDs ever again... Only streaming."
Pretty much confirming we won't be seeing a CD release of his latest album, The Life of Pablo, which was launched exclusively on Tidal, Kanye went on to tweet with dramatic imagery, "The Yeezus album packaging was an open casket to CDs r.i.p".
He ended his announcement by adding, "So there it is... No more CDs from me."
But while Kanye has been a major supporter of Tidal, the streaming service that aims to provide better audio to users and better royalties for artists, the news comes at an interesting time, having been caught browsing for Xfer Records Serum music editing software on The Pirate Bay in another tweet less than a week ago.
There was no evidence to suggest he actually downloaded the software illegally, but the tweet garnered a lot of attention, as it had been rumored that Kanye was planning on suing The Pirate Bay for hosting his new album. However, this was never confirmed.
So, is this the first major sign that the age of CD album releases are coming to an end? Only time will tell - but at least we'll have Kanye West to blame for it when it does.
