Kanye West is saying goodbye to CDs in favour of only releasing his future albums online.
The rapper released his latest project, The Life of Pablo, exclusively on streaming service Tidal last month (Feb16). It was expected to hit retailers on 12 February (16), the day after his New York Fashion Week showcase and listening party, but physical copies of the record never emerged as he wasn't happy with the quality of the mastering on the CDs.
On Monday (07Mar16), Kanye revealed all future albums will also snub the CD format, which he believes is dead.
"Uuuuum... hi everybody!" he began on Twitter.com. "I was thinking about not making CDs ever again... Only streaming."
Kanye went on to reference his 2013 effort, Yeezus, which featured a CD in a clear case as its cover, noting the "album packaging was an open casket to CDs r.i.p."
"so there it is... No more CDs from me," he concluded.
Kanye's decision to solely share his music online comes after fans were left confused as to the release plan for The Life of Pablo. After the album went live on Tidal, he urged fans to use the streaming service and hinted that hard copies might not become available at all.
"My album will never never never be on Apple," the Tidal co-owner stated at the time. "And it will never be for sale... You can only get it on Tidal. Please to all my friends fans and music lovers. Sign up to Tidal now."
However, the release confusion also prompted many to flock to torrent websites to illegally obtain copies of The Life of Pablo, and it was downloaded more than 500,000 times in a matter of days.
