Kanye West

Kanye West vows 'no more CDs'
The superstar will ditch physical discs for his music. Really. Honest.

Kanye West's recent trend toward tech-related diatribes isn't over yet. In one of his signature tweetstorms, the star has declared that there will be "no more CDs" coming from him -- if you want his music going forward, you'll likely have to download or stream it. The Yeezus album cover was an "open casket" at the CD's funeral, he says. The concept of a musician going online-only isn't that groundbreaking (just ask indies that can't justify producing CDs), but it's still rare to see a major artist swear off disc-based album sales.

Whether or not Kanye holds to that pledge is another matter. Although it's true that downloads and streams make up the majority of music revenue in some countries (including the US), that's still a lot of money to leave on the table. He's gambling that internet-based music sales will grow quickly enough in the near future that lost CD sales won't really matter. It seems like a reasonably smart bet, but then this is also the man who made his latest album an exclusive on a music service (Tidal) overshadowed by Apple Music and Spotify. It may be tempting for Kanye to change his mind if CD sales are decent in the near future.