Kentucky Wildcats Quickies: Kanye West Edition

Good morning and happy Friday, ladies and gentlemen of Big Blue Nation. Kanye West's latest album is poised to be the first streaming-only album to top US charts. This says two things to me: West has still got it, and how society consumes music has been irrevocably changed. Direct-to-consumer sales empowers artists by cutting out the middle men who take their cut, while potentially compromising an artist's vision.

This doesn't only apply to music either. Comedians Louis C.K. and Aziz Ansari has directly sold stand-up specials via their websites for a few years now for the cost of only a few schmeckels. That translates to real money if 100,000 people buy it because their production costs are…