This time last year, Kanye West was working on a new album project called ‘Yandhi’, although it has since been renamed ‘Jesus is King’. This summer, some of the demos from the project leaked. Now, someone appears to have been putting those leaks to nefarious use, although not through the recently-seen tactic of uploading them to streaming services under a different artist name. Instead, these tracks were converted into ringtones and uploaded to Apple’s iTunes Store, complete with a link back to West’s own artist page.
The Verge reports on the initial speculation that this was how West had decided to build some buzz around his new album, while noting that the supplier of the ringtones wasn’t a company associated with him. They have since been removed from the store. The tech site also did some digging, identifying other ringtones made available by the company, which it does not appear to have the rights to. ‘Fake ringtones’ are, it seems, now a thing in 2019.
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