Kanye West is asking major players in the music industry to respect his decision to go by his legally changed name "Ye" ... TMZ has learned.

In a letter obtained by TMZ ... Kanye's chief of staff, Milo Yiannopoulos, fires off a strong message to big players in the music industry -- including streamers, publishers, lyric websites and more -- with a demand that the rapper be referred to as Ye moving forward.

As Milo puts it ... Kanye didn't come to the decision to change his name lightly, as he is aware he's sacrificing brand value that comes with "Kanye West." Still ... the Grammy winner considers it a "slave name" and wants to ditch the moniker across all platforms.

He adds ... "Ye is a Black man in America who wants the right to full self-determination just like everyone else."

Remember ... Kanye officially changed his name to Ye back in October 2021. The artist had a judge sign off on him adopting his longtime nickname as his legal moniker years after speaking in favor of the name's Biblical ties.

Kanye told radio host Big Boy in 2018 that he preferred Ye since it was the most commonly used word in the Bible -- which wasn't actually an accurate statement, FWIW.

Still, Ye isn't the first artist to change their name ... as Diddy, Snoop Dogg, Prince, Bow Wow and Ke$ha have all switched up their public personas in the past.