But what they may be forgetting is that vinyls, CDs and cassettes (which are also being released more frequently by major artists) have no user interface or online connection either - yet they’re making the music industry money hand over fist.Įconomist Scott Hiller noted, “Generally, the more interesting and different the experience from streaming, the longer the likely sustained success of physical media.” Because of this, he’s adamant that vinyl is “here to stay.” As for the Stem Player, he believes its future is still ambiguous. Some may deem its lack of a screen and direct internet connection flaws that can’t be ignored. With the unlimited ways in which you can make a personal remix of a song, you are always guaranteed to always have a new experience when you engage with the Stem Player. You can also loop a section of a song or play it in reverse. You can isolate one stem completely or change the degree of its prominence. the various instruments: bass, synths, drums/beats or vocals. You can upload any song onto the device, then choose how you manipulate the “stems,” i.e. One can find it difficult to argue that it’s all fluff, because once you get past the jarring lack of an LED screen, all you’re left with is the music and how you choose to experience it. Roughly the size of an egg, draped in silicone, with LED lights that are the only visual indicators (there isn’t a user interface touch screen), its minimal aesthetic is on brand for Yeezy Inc. The Stem Player can be considered a similar revival of a past relic because it has the blueprint of an old-school MP3 player, but its capabilities are also fresh and unique when it comes to portable listening. (Digital album sales decreased by about the same amount.) Though single digital tracks are still the primary way we consume music, with streaming numbers surpassing a trillion, physical media is making a significant resurgence and seems to appeal to a younger generation’s nostalgia for an era gone by. Half the story is in the numbers: physical album sales in the U.S., including vinyls and CDs, astonishingly sold over three times the amount of digital album sales - a whopping 22% increase in 2021 compared to 2020. He claims his company Yeezy Tech was producing 3,000 Stem Players per day towards the start of March, which only sounds like a waste of production for those who haven’t been aware of the gradual boom in physical music media sales over the last decade. Kanye West released his highly anticipated Donda 2 on February 23rd exclusively on his Stem Player audio device available for purchase on his website alone - and reports to have made 2.2 million dollars in one day by keeping the new music off streaming platforms. MP4.Listen to the audio version of this essay on the podcast. It also supports a wide range of music formats: AIFF. The 4 light bars are described as “touch-sensitive light sliders,” and based on a video shared on the Instagram account, it allows users to chop up songs imported to the device. There s a USB-C port, volume buttons, speakers, a haptic engine, and 8GB of storage. It features a headphone jack and Bluetooth support and has the ability to do Bluetooth and audio jack playback simultaneously. As far as the specs are concerned, Yeezy partnered with Kano, an electronics company, to develop the puck-shaped device made of a “soft silicone blended skin” that looks like something West would design. So basically, we’re not holding our breath till we see this thing in the hands of actual people.
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