Samsung has launched the Magna Carta app, the vehicle through which one million Galaxy S 4, S III and Note II owners will be able to download Jay-Z's latest opus for free. Download it today, and Mr. Carter (Carter / Carta, geddit?) album will arrive on your handset on July 4th, three days ahead of the CD's global release. Users will also get behind-the-scenes footage, lyrics and track sharing options. It's available for free at the Play store, with the obvious caveat that it'll only work on the aforementioned trio of phones. After all, if you're having phone problems, he feels bad for you son, he's got 99 problems, but Samsung's patronage ain't one.
Released less than a week ago exclusively via TIDAL and Sprint, the critically-acclaimed full-length marks the artist also known as Shawn Carter's thirteenth solo album to go at least platinum and his seventeenth to do so when including collaborative projects with Kanye West, R. Kelly and Linkin Park.
jay z album free download
Given the nature of RIAA's certification audit requirements, the brisk timing of 4:44's platinum plaque--on an extended holiday weekend, no less--indicated another factor at play. Most album releases take weeks or months to achieve certification, presumably at least partially a function of the time required to conduct the audit. For context, Drake's streaming behemoth Views took about one month to reach its initial platinum milestone.
According to a source at the RIAA, it appears that Carter has Sprint to thank for 4:44's swift certification. Under the program's rules, there needs to be demonstrated consumer demand in the United States, either for an on-demand stream or a sale. A sale counts toward a certification if purchased directly by the customer. Alternatively, a business can purchase the album or song and offer it to listeners. That listener then must take affirmative steps to acquire the album or song.
Much like Carter's 2013 deal with Samsung surrounding his Magna Carta Holy Grail album, which as a result went platinum off of the business' one million digital copy purchase, Sprint purchased enough copies of 4:44 to allow it to happen once again, and quickly at that.
Still, a corporate purchase alone doesn't make an album platinum. Affirmative steps on a listener's part are required. Indeed, 4:44 was made available for a period of time as either an MP3 or FLAC download for Sprint customers over the weekend, provided that a voucher code and email address was provided to TIDAL. Sprint also offered Sprint customers a six month free trial of the TIDAL service.
Whatever way their customers accessed the album, their individual actions would count towards the platinum certification. However, Roc Nation has now confirmed that the Sprint download arrangement accounts for today's platinum announcement and that TIDAL streams did not factor into that.
Though the details of Sprint's investment in 4:44 have not been made public as yet, it seems that Carter, as the artist, was compensated in line with the RIAA's requirements. But simply put, if Sprint purchased one million digital copies of 4:44 to offer its customers for free download, and all of those copies were in turn downloaded, then by RIAA rules it would meet the requirement for platinum certification. Given Roc Nation's confirmation, that appears to be precisely what happened here.
While Carter's business model for 4:44's release may not be easily emulated by other artists, it reflects a shrewd understanding of the traditions and conventions of the recording industry as it continues to adapt in the digital age. He's been around long enough to have sold platinum albums through brick and mortar stores and online retailers, and is proving one of the few artists who understands how to make money in streaming.
Zack O'Malley Greenburg is senior editor of media & entertainment at Forbes and author of four books, including A-List Angels: How a Band of Actors, Artists and Athletes Hacked Silicon Valley and the Jay-Z biography Empire State of Mind. Zack's work has also appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Billboard, Sports Illustrated, Vibe, McSweeney's and the Library of Congress. In over a decade at Forbes, he has investigated topics from Wu-Tang Clan's secret album in Morocco to the return of tourism in post-conflict Sierra Leone to the earning power of Hip-Hop's Cash Kings, writing cover stories on subjects ranging from Richard Branson to Ashton Kutcher to Katy Perry. A former child actor, Zack played the title role in the film Lorenzo's Oil (1992) and arrived at Forbes in 2007 after graduating from Yale with an American Studies degree. For more, follow him on Twitter, Facebook, newsletter and via www.zogreenburg.com. Got a tip on a music, media & entertainment story? Send it over via SecureDrop. Instructions here: www.forbes.com/tips
Kanye West's new album \"Yeezus\" might have leaked and spread across the Internet before the performer wanted, but Jay-Z has a more strategic plan to get his upcoming album out to the Web before the official launch.
On July 4, his new album \"Magna Carta Holy Grail\" will be released, but not through the usual online and physical music stores. It will be released to a million people who didn't even know they had bought the album -- that's because Samsung has bought it for them.
One million Samsung Galaxy S3, S4 and Galaxy Note II owners will get the album 72 hours before it is available to everyone else. Starting on June 24 users will be able to download the \"Magna Carta Holy Grail\" app via the Android Google Play Store then on July 4 if you were among the million chosen the free album will appear in the app for your listening pleasure.
Samsung says that the million chosen will have to have already download the app. The app will only be compatable on the select Galaxy S3, S4 and Note II phones and won't work on other Android phones, says Samsung. The company hasn't released numbers on how many of those three phone models have been sold, but in May it announced it had sold 10 million of its new Galaxy S4. For those who aren't selected to get the full album, the app will also have an \"unprecedented inside look into the album, personal stories and inspiration.\"
But since the Samsung marketing deal was announced on Sunday night during the NBA Finals over 5 million people have heard a teaser of the album. A video which ran first during the basketball event and then was posted to Samsung's YouTube channel, which shows Jay-Z collaborating with others in the studio, has made its way across the Facebook and Twitter. As of today, 5.3 million people had watched it via YouTube.
\"The Internet is like the wild, wild west. We need to write the new rules,\" Jay-Z says in the video. Owners of the app, though not the album, will be able to share it with other Galaxy S phone owners via Facebook, Twitter and S Beam, Samsung's tap-to-share feature.
Some fear that it will lead to illegal downloading and sharing of the album as only those with specific Galaxy phones will have access to it on July 4. However, Jay-Z seems to be very clear on those ramifications. 2ff7e9595c
Yorumlar