Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo will never be for sale.
As the clock struck midnight on Saturday (February 13), Kanye surprised fans during his SNL performance with the abrupt release of T.L.O.P., his seventh studio album. Streaming exclusively on TIDAL and as a paid-download on KanyeWest.com, the album appeared and then, out of nowhere, it was gone.
Thousands of subscribers complained about the confusion, leading the album to be pirated a reported 500,000 times. About an hour after the performance, the album eventually landed onto TIDAL with a seven-day stream exclusivity and a $20 price tag on the rapper’s website. However, just like after the announcement, the album and its download link once again disappeared on the latter link. Per Billboard, the album was removed due to Ye’s unhappiness with the mastering.
Since then, fans have either received the album after multiple attempts on Ye’s website or, as Billboard points out, still without it.
As of this writing, T.L.O.P. is now only available for streaming on TIDAL.
If that wasn’t enough, on Monday (February 15), Kanye revealed the new album would solely be available on the streaming service, sans Apple Music or iTunes, and added “it will never be for sale.”
In pushing the album to the streaming service, Kanye’s T.L.O.P. gave TIDAL a boost TIDAL as the app ranks No. 1 on the iOS Apple Store chart for Free Apps for the first time since its launch. The service also remains in the Top 50 of the Top Grossing list.
“Man thank you so so so much everyone for signing up to Tidal,” the “Real Friends” rapper avowed on Twitter. Later he added, “TIDAL is also funding a lot of my scripted content ideas. It’s a new day people. More Ultra Light Dreams to be realized.”
But as is the case with most exclusive album releases, the LP has since spawned a record number of illegal downloads. According to BBC and Torrent Freaks, the LP is one of the most popular music downloads on The Pirate Bay. Over the weekend, the RIAA even filed about 20 takedown requests to Google for websites hosting the material.
Kanye’s The Life Of Pablo is available now and only on TIDAL.