The game has changed forever. Kanye West has become the first artist in the history of recorded music to have an album go #1, based on streams alone. There were a few copies of The Life of Pablo sold via Kanye’s own site, but the vast majority of these first week numbers came from streaming outlets.
Thanks to opening up the album to Spotify and Apple Music, the album earned 90k in sales based on the new measurement. Bravo. How long have I been trying to warn people that this was going to happen? Thankfully, the rest of the world is now paying attention. Welcome to the future.
Kanye West is officially the first artist to have an album go #1 with a number based entirely on streaming from the major outlets. There were some paid album downloads for The Life of Pablo from the G.O.O.D/Def Jam star’s own website, but the overwhelming majority of the 90k+ earned came from streaming services, including Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal.
This unprecedented strategy was crafted with Kanye by new manager Scooter Braun, Steve Bartels and Team Def Jam. Meanwhile, Ye can also be seen atop the iTunes singles chart, thanks to his collaboration with Drake on “Pop Style.”