Samsung to Give Away 1 Million Copies of Jay-Z’s New Album, Say What?

Jay Z's new album went platinum before ever even going on sale.

Did you read that headline correctly? Yep, it's true and now that is going to be just another tactic as a well to help sell music. Prince has included a cd in the ticket price of one his tours to push huge sales, Radiohead famously allowed for fans to name their price on the album and now Jay Z has partnered up with Samsung to leverage his new album as a free download to their smartphone users. 

Gimmicks will always be a part of the advertising landscape but here is one thing that lasts, great music. For five weeks now, Carolina Still has been a featured album on Itunes. We aren't selling in the hundreds of thousands of copies nor have we moved more than 10,000 just yet, but real music fans are listening. No matter if you like Jay Z, Samsung or any of the bigger corporate entities involved in, take a play out of their strategy book and use it in your own way. 

Carolina Still, featured right up there on New & Noteworthy with quite the contemporaries

There is no safety net in rock n' roll nor are there any rules. Create your own future out of the vision you see as reality. Five years ago I would never have thought we would have gotten this far as an indie music label. Now I am looking forward to where we are in ten years when the great bands we get to work with have exploded onto the world market. As the second half of 2013 rolls around, we have some damn great albums yet to come!

 

Read the original article on The Wall Street Journal

"As the Miami Heat faced off against the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA finals Sunday night, a curious TV ad aired near the end of the second quarter featuring rap star Jay-Z in a studio, riffing with a cast of characters including producer Rick Rubin and artist Pharrell Williams. At one point, a member of the posse is shown taking notes on a tablet device. More than two minutes into the three-minute video Samsung Electronics Co. 005930.SE -0.15%’s tagline flashes across the screen: “The Next Big Thing.”

The connection: Samsung has purchased 1 million copies of Jay-Z’s coming album, entitled “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” slated for release July 4, and plans to give them to Samsung Galaxy smartphone users for free – 72 hours ahead of the release. The users are to receive the music through an app they’ll receive later this month. (Recipients won’t be able to share it until the official release date.)

Samsung paid $5 apiece for the albums, according to a person familiar with the matter. It wasn’t immediately clear if Nielsen SoundScan will count Samsung’s purchases in its sales tallies.

The partnership could help Samsung compete with Apple Inc. AAPL -1.36%, which recently announced the launch of iTunes Radio – an online radio service bundled onto Apple devices that promises to offer listeners access to certain tracks before they’re available elsewhere.

For Jay-Z, the deal is a precious advertising opportunity and gives him $5 million in sales before the album is even released. The agreement signals the increasing importance of corporate sponsors to the music industry, which has seen sales tank over the past decade.

Jay-Z hinted at the partnership on Twitter two days ago with a photo of a Samsung smartphone displaying text telling fans to “tune in” to the game.

Neither Samsung nor Jay-Z could immediately be reached for comment."