Kanye West is fed up with music streaming, and when Kanye is unhappy, the world will know about it.
That’s the takeaway from a NSFW series of tweets he let loose over the weekend, venting his frustration and calling for unifying action from the industry’s titans, which includes platforms like Tidal, Apple Music, Spotify, and Google Play.
“This Tidal Apple beef is f–king up the music game,” reads his first missive on the subject. Earlier this summer, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was in talks to buy Jay Z’s subscription streaming platform Tidal. But there hasn’t been movement on that front since. In the meantime, artists have increasingly taken to choosing one platform or another to release their work exclusively.
West has been a Tidal supporter before, first exclusively releasing his latest album, The Life of Pablo, on Jay Z’s service.
That’s definitely the room where it happens. Let’s break down this invite list: Tim Cook is Apple’s CEO; Jay Z, of course, runs Tidal; “Jimmy” is most likely a reference to Jimmy Iovine of Interscope Records and Beats Electronics; Larry would be Google’s Larry Page; Drake needs no introduction; and “Scooter” is probably Scooter Braun, Justin Bieber’s manager. (“I forgot to add [Spotify CEO] Daniel Ek,” West tweeted shortly after, completing the roll call of music streaming’s major players.)
“F*** all this d*** swinging contest. We all gon be dead in 100 Years. Let the kids have the music,” he continued, a point to which most millennials probably nodded their heads enthusiastically. Then he called out Apple in specific for dragging its feet:
(That would be a shoutout to visionary Apple founder Jobs, of course.)
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Write to Raisa Bruner at raisa.bruner@time.com