(AllHipHop News) Kanye West has been keeping all of his latest releases exclusive, from his sneakers, to his music and now videos of his live performances. Over the last few days, footage of his live performances have been deleted from YouTube, and some user accounts have even been deleted.
Sites such as XXLmag, XONecole, and Miss Info have been affected by the sweep, where footage of last weeks Yeezy Season 3 fashion show and The Life of Pablo listening party have been removed. The Kanye camp has even went on to delete footage from past Yeezy events and performances.
Kanye has seemed a little emotional lately, according to his Twitter rants, regarding the support of his work. So this live performance sweep could be a reaction to The Life of Pablo album being illegally downloaded over 500,000 times since its release.
This could also be Kanye’s way of supporting good friend and mentor Jay Z’s streaming service Tidal. Kanye has made it a big point to release The Life of Pablo and his future content exclusively to the Tidal streaming service. So that means if you want to get in on G.O.O.D Fridays you better get an account.
Rihanna’s ANTI album was limited to a Tidal release for its first two weeks before it was available elsewhere. Kanye’s The Life Of Pablo was originally supposed to mirror ANTI‘s release, however Kanye later told fans that he would never release it elsewhere. Tidal subscriptions have taken a huge leap after the release of these two albums. Now it is suspected that the final piece to the rise of Tidal plan will be put in place by a release from the Queen herself, Beyonce.
These exclusive releases have limited the amount of illegal downloads, however it has also limited the the typical avenues fans had to purchase the album as well. And since Kanye is “going broke” he will need all the album sales he can get. Hopefully the live performance sweep and exclusive project releases help Kanye and other artists get the true support they desire.