This image was removed due to legal reasons.

Kanye West's tweets have become a treasure trove for jokes and think pieces. Last night, the artist tweeted a screenshot of his Safari browser; he had 6 different tabs open. The one most prominently displayed shows Kanye listening to a Sufjan Stevens song on YouTube, but on the left, one tab reads "Pirate Bay Torrent." It certainly looks like Kanye West is using an illegal download site.


It's ironic that Kanye West—who made his most recent album only available for streaming on Tidal, a platform he co-owns—is visiting a site where users download music illegally. Kanye very recently threatened to sue Pirate Bay for distributing copies of his new album, The Life of Pablo (which is, in fact illegal).


Since Kanye decided to withhold his album from other streaming platforms, like Spotify—and even from iTunes, where it could be purchased legally—fans turned to torrent sites for illegal downloads. There has been a steep decline in the number of torrented albums since the adoption of streaming into the music industry. In October 2015, a European commission found that, “consistent with the existing literature, our analysis also shows that Spotify displaces music piracy.” But Kanye's album is not on Spotify, so some Kanye enthusiasts chose another option. TorrentFreak estimated that 500,000 people illegally downloaded The Life of Pablo the first day.

This image was removed due to legal reasons.

“Kanye is going to meet with his legal team to discuss the possibilities of starting legal action against torrent site Pirate Bay,” a source told HollywoodLife in February. “He’s going to talk to his lawyers and see where he stands, and hopefully Tidal will partner up with him in any legal proceedings because it was supposed to be an exclusive release.”

But is Tidal-only music a realistic goal? Exclusivity is not a viable business model for music. Even artists like Taylor Swift and Adele, who refused to put their newest albums on Spotify, still had songs available on YouTube. And there's a huge difference between asking someone to pay $12 for an album, and asking them to pay $10 a month for a new streaming platform that, frankly, doesn't offer much that Spotify doesn't already have.


Of course, we don't know what Kanye was doing on Pirate Bay. Maybe he just wanted to see if his album was being downloaded. But The Life of Pablo does not start with "Xfe"—which are the three letters in his Pirate Bay tab.

Perhaps "Xfe" corresponds to the $189 Serum synthesizer made by Xfer Records for Mac and Windows—Kanye has that tab open as well. At least, that's what superstar producer Deadmau5 thinks:


Deadmau5 is joking about Kanye not having the money to afford the synthesizer program. Despite all of his boasting, Kanye West can (of course) afford a $189 synthesizer. But that is the crucial tension over illegal downloads and streaming: Why pay for something that you could have for free? Streaming makes listening to music convenient. And it's easier to do than downloading from a torrent site.


Without access to Kanye's computer, we cannot know for sure what was going on. What we do know is that his concept of exclusivity in music isn't working. If people can try and get something for free, they will. And whenever something is available only through exclusive means—be it on Tidal or through the Xfer Recordings site—human nature is to look and see if there's another way.

If Kanye was using Pirate Bay to illegally download a program, can he blame his fans for illegally downloading his album? By releasing his album through Tidal in an exclusive manner, Kanye played into the mindset that downloads. It's a mindset that, however brokenly, the streaming industry is trying to combat and fix.


Kelsey McKinney is a culture staff writer for Fusion.