Kanye West’s ‘Donda’ sets new Apple Music streaming record

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Kanye West‘s newly released Donda is already making waves across several charts. The album has shattered an Apple Music record within its first 24 hours of release.

Billboard reports that fans streamed Ye’s 10th studio effort a whopping 60 million times over the course of 24 hours.  In addition, the rapper overtook the top 20 spots in Apple’s Daily Top 100 Global songs chart.  This milestone officially makes the “Stronger” rapper the service’s most-streamed artist.

In addition, Donda debuted atop the streamer’s albums charts in 152 countries.

The studio effort also made a splash on Spotify, racking up 94 million global streams in its first 24 hours of release, becoming the album with the second-best debut in the streaming service’s history.

Donda, which boasts 27 tracks, was released unexpectedly on Sunday after numerous delays.  As Ye pushed back the album’s release date, he held three listening events — two in Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium and one in Chicago’s Soldier Field — where fans packed into the respective stadiums to hear the album.

Donda, which is named after Ye’s late mother, Donda West, was first teased in March 2020 and originally slated to come out that July. However, the Grammy winner cancelled the release and announced he would be further tweaking the album, and later set a new release date for July 23 of this year. The album was famously pushed back two more times after failing to materialize on several other promised release dates before finally dropping on August 29.

West claims the album was released without approval, according to a text graphic he shared shortly after the album’s release.  He also claimed Universal, his label, blocked a track that featured DaBaby from the studio effort.

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