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I got the Stem Player and it’s a pretty cool device. As a music producer, you can use it as a MIDI controller w software like FL Studio. I do believe that the stem player being $200 is over killed. If it was around $90-150 it would be a dope product. It is sold on hype though.
See my pops makes music and I’d get it for him for people who’s passion is music and will get much use $200 doesn’t seem bad but I wouldn’t pay that much since I’d be addicted to it for a week then forget about it most likely.
Ordered my stem player yesterday. I don’t even care about the album. The fact that you’re able to chop & mix your own songs on this small device almost instantly & on the go is pretty impressive.
You really had me tripping out over my audio setup by saying " the left channel" while playing the voiceover in the right channel. Even had to go do a stereo test 👁️👄👁️
Hell no it’s not a scam! As a music producer, this will change the trajectory of music forever and shift the paradigm. The fact that you can easily rip vocals and instruments is amazing
People who think this is a scam are the same people who pick up a set of high quality pencils and markers and get pissed off when they dont create masterpieces. The average music listener is not a creative person, this is meant for creative people to utilize it in unique ways, look up videos of people creating their own tracks with this here on youtube and youll be amazed by the amount of talent this device allows to be displayed.
I’m sorry but this stem player is not comparable to set of high quality materials. A DAW would be more like a set of high quality materials because a DAW contains synthesizers, effects, plug ins and everything you need to create a song. This stem player is a cheap crayola set. You can’t make a masterpiece with this glorified sampler that happens to store Kanye’s latest album
@@Rolafairy it’s definitely not as advanced as a daw for creating tracks but it’s a really cool way to listen to music if you’re experienced with music production since it allows to play with the depth of the music
@@Rolafairy It's not supposed to be a DAW. It's supposed to be a compact, portable music remixer with the ability to split music into individual tracks. The AI itself is pretty groundbreaking for what it is, when you put in new tracks. Let me know when you can split a baked track into seperate stems in a matter of seconds
I'm still confused as to how he's even gonna pay artists who decide to put their music on the stem player if that even becomes a feature at all. Is he gonna give them stock In the company or just payment up front ? If so I think artists would rather just put their music on steaming services because a flat rate per stream is better then letting Kanye decide how much my album is worth.
exactly; through all of this it seems like he does nothing to back up this point. sure; he can put his album on his own product and claim this is empowerment for the industry, but what is he doing for those he claims to help
Just got my stem player in the mail today. As a music producer and a huge Kanye fan I really love it. Is it for everyone? No. My favourite part is hooking it up to my daw and recording the audio output, very very cool. Being able to remix Donda 1 & 2 in the palm of my hand and record stems to my daw put a smile on my face.
@@xbrandon2252 you’re right, there are free apps that allow you to separate stems for free or you could even do it yourself in a DAW. But this Yeezy tech stem player comes with exclusive Donda 2 stems you can’t find anywhere else. Great for ppl who want the high quality stems to Create remixes and new music.
It’s literally only getting called a scam cause Ye released it. It’s a fun and interesting device, no one has to buy it if you don’t want to. Idk when getting a product you wanted to buy became a scam
"The already famous and rich artist aren't making as much money as they used to, let's make the consumers spend 200 dollars when people were enjoying music a public good!". Seriously though, reminder. Things being a public good, is a good thing. This is like if a book author wanted to shut down librairies so they can make more money.
this comment is pretty insensitive lmao. the reality is the music industry fucks over artists and does not pay them their moneys worth for their creative output. in simple terms, artists are ultimately underpaid for what they're music is worth. so i really don't understand how you could be mad at an artist for taking independent outlets to make the money they feel they're music is worth - this is a powerful move that could help all artists make their moneys worth. whether you feel like any artist is worth millions is a separate conversation but you cant deny that this is something to champion rather than detest. donda 2 is going to leak anyway so you will be able to listen to it for free if you don't want to buy a stem player. at the end of the day people will spend money to be happy - and I'm sure $200 on a stem player will make some people happy, simple as that.
If libraries made it so that authors made 0.001 of their deserved earnings then this would make sense. The music/streaming industry is corrupt and greedy. Kanye opening it up for independent artists to no longer rely on them is a good thing and $200 is a good price for what this thing can do. I have one and it’s awesome.
poor and lesser known artists are making way less money than they used to too. Sure, streaming is convenient for the listener but terrible for artists of any size. and last time i checked libraries didn't make bookstores go out of business
@@rikima123 first of all Kanye is literally part of that same industry that fucks over artists, he’s fucked over artists on his record label GOOD Music multiple times the most famous of which is obviously Big Sean, u can look up how many artists have already left the label (Kid Cudi, etc.) so I don’t think he’s exactly a trustworthy person to be championing this whole movement. Secondly, the idea of selling ur music for what u think it is worth is a great idea but it only works in practice if you have the hype and platform of a massive superstar like Kanye. So, in reality, I doubt that a smaller artist would actually benefit from this system any more than they would from normal streaming, maybe a bit but I feel like the difference would be marginal.
Even if you buy a digital album on bandcamp for $1 with the 15% bandcamp cut you'd have to listen to it 21 times assuming a 10 track album on spotify for it to be comparable for the bandcamp purchase.
The plan for the stem player is for artist to be able to sell their songs including stems where they get 90% of the revenue. There are other plans to have it be a subscription service where listeners can put money into their favorite artists songs and get a kick back from supporting the artist. This is all still in development so these things will get fleshed out and finalized with exactly what they want to do. The stem player itself can't do much but the platform it's trying to create is interesting to me and could be great.
I get what you saying but we need something like this on spotify or apple music. If kanyes platform is a success it will fragment the whole industry and the destroy the beauty of it.
I don’t care about donda 2 at all. That wasn’t even a selling point for me when I ordered it. I just think the capabilities that it has and how I can have a tool to make simple little remixes on the go
The stem player has taught me so much about music and has allowed me to hear individual parts better for sampling and the looping feature leads to crazy sample chops the thing is like a mpc in my eyes
Definitely , it’s just like one of those AL converter websites on the internet where you wanna remove vocals or instrumentals. And, most of the song instrumental always come out watery. Which is the SAME results you get from Kanye’s stem player. I bet it was easily made. I‘d classify the “stem player” as a Bluetooth speaker🤣 But I guess because he’s Kanye I guess anyone would buy his product, just like da shoes.
i just wished he invested the money into some kind of decentralized streaming platform/bandcamp kanye has power to actually make people buy albums again, and with power of internet artists dont have to give off most of the revenue to distributors, and publishers. i can easily see a future where all major artists leave streaming platforms, and spotify becomes a place for ai generated music stream, and if a listener actually values human artists vision in music, he becomes a “woke” listener and goes and buys the album for 5 bucks or whatever…
Glad you went into depth into why Kanye made the stem player due to the low pay out from streaming. Some day something has to change in the music industry.
I always loved the concept of the stem player, and the device itself looks really cool. However the problem is exclusivity, not everyone can afford the 200$ device that for now plays only one album. If i were to somehow control this situation, i would love if artists released music both on streaming platforms for normal listening, and release a special version to play around with the stem player. Everyone would be able to make their own version of a song they like. I always loved and supported remixing and this would change the game. I hope ye agrees with me, or atleast drops Donda 2 on streaming platforms for everyone to enjoy.
I respect your thesis here, but the thought this is a scam makes the assumption that we “deserve” an album from anyone. It’s not like he inflated the price of water or any essential good or service. This is a piece of art, a commodity that you choose to ascribe personal value. He just threw another wrench in the game! Let’s respect that.
Damn man, your production just keeps getting better and better each video. Your passion just seeps into every crack, and I think few other RU-vidrs are as profound with their analysis. Bravo :)
The Stem Player was a nice thing to have and felt like a bonus for Donda 1. Now that this glorified Ipod is the only way to listen to Donda 2, it feels kinda scummy.
It’s version 1 people it’s a new breakthrough in music kinda like those usb mp3 we used to have and look that turned into the iPod. Kanye puts it out and then someone smarter comes along and makes the product better.
Scam. It would just have been taking advantage of his impressionable teenage fan base, but after he only delivered a half finished mumble mess of an album several days after the release date...it crossed over into full blown scam. Lots of children got their parents to buy it for them just for the sole reason of also getting Donda 2. Hopefully this is a learning lesson for them, but the type of kanye fan that bought these are typically so blinded by their celebrity worship they will still find some reason to justify it, like they are on PR payroll. Except they aren't and Kanye does care about them in the slightest.
You’re acting like all it does is play donda 2. Separating parts of songs isn’t the easiest thing to do so only having to pay $200 once for a stem player really isn’t that bad lmao. Also it’s a piece of hip-hop history so I felt like I had to get it
ive seen "collectors" versions of albums and hip-hop related collectables go for much higher than $200 (just look at pretty much any discontinued piece of MF DOOM merch), and for those, their only use is really to look cool and be conversation pieces. The stem player may be a gimmick, but its a gimmick with a purpose and a use.
@@ready_red99 it doesn’t accurately separate the parts of the song tho. not like having the actual stems, at all. there’s only 4 channels on the stem player, and damn near all songs have more than 4 channels when u include vocals, guitar, bass, back up vocals, piano, guest vocals, etc. what you’re actually doing is paying $200 for overhyped technology that already exists. AI stem tech has been a thing for a while thanks to Spleeter, and numerous plugins for various DAWs. if anything, the stem player is an overpriced, entry level toy
it’s clear to me how much of a scam this is by the people sure that it’s unique technology. it doesn’t accurately separate the parts of songs. not like having the actual stems, if anything. there’s only 4 channels on the stem player, and damn near all songs have more than 4 channels when u include vocals, guitar, bass, back up vocals, piano, guest vocals, etc. what you’re actually doing is paying $200 for overhyped technology that already exists. AI stem tech has been a thing for a while thanks to Spleeter, and numerous plugins for various DAWs. if anything, the stem player is an overpriced, entry level toy. straight up gimmick
i think nobody is saying that technology is unique. device definitely is tho. there are only 4 channels so everybody could use it otherwise it gets too complicated.
I paid 400 including shipping, don’t regret a thing. It’s an awesome lil thing. Gated tech isn’t any worse because it’s expensive. This technology doesn’t exist in this form. It’s experimental and so it’s expensive. It’s the price of early adoption. You can’t use a MIDI controller on the move. You sound like people who hated on the iPhone because Mobile phones, desktops and iPods already existed.
@@SaintPablo. the technology doesn’t exist in that form bc it’s not really all that useful to begin with. and definitely not at that price. in what venue is the stem player really useful? in a concert setting it’s sorta anti-climactic to watch someone basically do all the same maneuvers as texting out a long paragraph on a tiny device. in a studio setting there’s really no point to using the stem player when u can accomplish all of that and more on a standard DAW. not to mention the limitations of only having 4 channels, like even for entry-level artists ur still going to run into limitations pretty quickly. it’s literally only useful for like showing ur friends a fun mix at the park. or killing time when ur bored ig. u can’t use a midi controller on the move, but using a heavily limited stem player isn’t any better imho. the limitations of an already expensive device vastly outweigh any potential benefits it might have
@@alexhellacaster27 I agree 100% it’s not all that useful at all for any current use cases- in the same way televisions weren’t all that useful when there wasn’t any content for them. It’s absolutely for chilling out and listening. Genuinely had like 4 unique sessions listening to a couple different albums now and they’re pretty amazing - it’s like having the option to listen to a stripped/acoustic version of any album on the go. I’m sure when people start releasing songs with 4 intentional stems the sentiment around the player will change.
@@alexhellacaster27 also 4 is a perfect number for casual listening and limitations aren’t a thing for creatives- there’s always a workaround. Even the design of the device - everything is super intentional- it’s rather beautiful. The texture, the shape, even the UI, button and port placement. It’s all pretty damn near perfect. Humans building amazing shit is what we’re here for. Innovation brother. This is the type of behaviour we should promote. Just keep building.
The content of this channel has unfortunately gotten a lot worse over time. Volkgeist pretty much exclusively covers Drake and Kanye these days, and seems to have run completely short of ideas when so much is going on in the hip-hop world
I, personally as a smaller musician who makes a meaningful income from spotify, do not like the paradigm shift that Kanye is attepmting. I do want to note, that you said " a penny for play isnt meaningful" when it would be insanely huge and meaningful. Maybe I mishheard. Yes I do also wish that streaming services paid more, but I remember entering into music at a time where artists were exp3cting to make absolutely nothing off an album and to release it for free on datpiff. I think what Kanye is actually doing is destroying a paradigm that a lot of us were just geting to work, but who knows, I ccould be freaking out for nothing.
It's like youtubers having pateron or nft and giving special privileges to ppl who support them there. Maybe he'd star making exclusive stuff for the stem player like 500 k dinner with him.
man im tired of the spotify pays too low discussion. nobody and i mean no artist would ever have such high numbers without the spotify algorithm. and these numbers are easy to fake. spotify has to guard itself somehow against this. im tired of artist complaining about streams, get on a venue perform well and get yo deserved money. nobody deserves payment for a number that is impossible to put in perspective.
Love your videos!!! Hell, I might get a stem player one day. Could ya'll checkout my new single? I made it in my bedroom and shot/edited the video myself too. Peace and Blessings everybody (Shane Morgan Raps - Wishing Well)
Kanye is simply doing this for money and could careless about his fans. Idk y u cant just do this by developing an app instead of making people buy a 200 dollar device
