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Kanye West's new track “Vultures 1” has been removed from Apple Music after the artist abused automated systems to post it on streams services. without the distributor's blessing.
West has been working with digital music distribution service Fuga to distribute his music for some time now. Fuga takes music from artists and does the heavy lifting of distributing tracks to services like Apple Music, Spotify, and others.
It appears that West uploaded the album to the distributor anyway, knowing that the automated services would handle the upload on Fuga's behalf anyway.
“Late last year, Fuga was presented with the opportunity to release Vultures 1. Using our judgment in the normal course of business, we declined to do so,” Fuga said in a statement to Variety on Thursday. “On Friday, February 9, 2024, a long-time Fuga customer delivered the album Vultures 1 through the platform's automated processes, in violation of our service agreement.”
Fuga is therefore actively working with its DSP partners and the customer to remove Vultures 1 from our systems,” the service added.
We were unable to find answers on this matter from West's publicists anywhere. For now, the album remains on Spotify, but removal seems imminent.
Some singles from the album remain on Apple Music. They were uploaded by Label Engine, another music distribution service.
Removal from Apple Music is the second action taken against “Vultures 1.” Previously, “Good (Don't Die)” was removed after Donna Summer's estate complained that West was using Summer's track without permission and violating copyright.
This track was canceled on February 14th.
The West has recently come under criticism for anti-Semitic statements. He has also previously battled technology, complaining that the Federal Communications Commission should look into the situation after shutting down Apple Pay when it was instead a banking transaction, and revealing on camera in the Oval Office that his iPhone passcode was “000000.”
On the other hand, West broke Apple Music records. “Donda” set records in 2021, reaching over 60 million streams on Apple Music.
