While most people know Kanye West for his music career, the rapper has recently begun exploring the field of entertainment technology. Together with tech innovator Alex Klein, West, who now goes by the stage name Ye, developed the Stem Player, which allows listeners to manipulate their favorite albums. Users of the Stem Player can speed up and slow down songs and even isolate sections of tracks by looping and reversing them.
West’s faith in the Stem Player is so strong that he will be releasing his latest album, Donda 2, exclusively on the device. West’s decision to release the album solely on the Stem Player is also part of the artist’s growing initiative to own his own music.
Donda 2 is the first Ye album to be released independently and not through Def Jam and Universal Music Group. While releasing Donda 2 on the Stem Player might make good business sense for West, Klein explains that doing so is more than just the rapper’s way of giving fans a fun way of exploring his music.
In an interview with reporters from GQ, Klein explains that the new player will be paradigm shift in how we listen to music in the future.
Klein opens by noting that prior to the advent of the Stem Player, his company, Kano, was best known for making see-through, buildable computers. The company’s original goal was not only to help people gain access to technology but to help them understand technology as well. Klein notes that due to the nature of Kano’s computers, even a young child can build one of their devices.
West first learned of Kano in 2019 and immediately saw the potential for collaboration. The end result is the Stem Player, which Klein says continues Kano’s tradition of accessibility and understanding in technology.
Continuing, Klein says that using the Stem Player to listen to music barely scratches the surface of the device’s potential. As more and more people come to realize the benefits of the Stem Player, Klein predicts that the device will change the creation and distribution of music in the future.
True to the company’s original intent of making technology accessible to everyone, Klein says that the Stem Player was designed to be simple. Instead of having a screen like most music devices, the Stem Player bares a remarkable resemblance to a rock. The player’s circular nature, bright buttons, and flashing lights are further intended to stimulate the senses and imagination of users.
Addressing the way users can manipulate music, Klein says that he and his company view it as a democratic form of music. While listeners can enjoy songs as they are presented to them by artists, they can also change them for a more individualized experience.
Thus far, more and more people have seen the benefits of adding a Stem Player to their musical experience. Earlier in the month, West posted a screenshot of the devices sales, which posted to 6,000 units in a 24-hour period. Since the device resales for $200, the revenue generated by the Stem Player thus totaled a remarkable $1.3 million.
While the Stem Player has been a major success for Klein and West, Klein says that the future holds an even brighter future for the device. Klein reveals that future iterations of the Stem Player will cross into other forms of media.
As time goes by, Klein says that he hopes the Stem Player will help people change the world by allowing the average person greater access to technology. By putting the power of technology into everyone’s hands, Klein hopes to create a more equitable world bolstered by millennia of human knowledge.
