Updated: A new comment from Nielsen was added to this story today at 4 p.m. PDT.
Jay-Z has a new record coming out. Soon. It's hitting the world on July 4. And it's already sold a million copies.
How? As part of a partnership announced along with the album, which gives Kanye West a run for his Yeezus money with the title Magna Carta Holy Grail, Samsung will be releasing the album free to one million Galaxy S III, Galaxy S4, and Galaxy Note II users through a special app 72 hours before its on-sale date. Since the company paid $5 a pop for each copy of the record, according to the Wall Street Journal, Hova has now already sold a million copies of an album few people knew existed before the commercial announcing it (below) aired during Sunday night's NBA finals game between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs.
"We don't have any rules, everyone is trying to figure it out. That's why the internet is like the Wild West, the Wild Wild West. We need to write the new rules," Jay-Z says in the announcement video. "The idea is to really finish the album and drop it. Giving it to the world at one time and then letting them share it, and it goes out."
Producer Rick Rubin—who is in the studio with Swizz Beatz, Pharrell, and Timbaland in the clip—thinks this idea is "beautiful" but more than that it's proven confusing, and even frustrating, to more than a few people (and iPhone users). Fool's Gold Records co-founder, and frequent Kanye West DJ, A-Trak tweeted "that Samsung shit is corny" last night, and many others expressed annoyance at the Samsung exclusive—saying that the early release on devices would lead to them illegally downloading Magna Carta.
Yet, when Hova says "and then letting them share it," he doesn't explain exactly what that means–or exactly what users are going to get. Nowadays, most albums leak. There's even a website devoted to tracking which records have hit the web, the creatively titled, Has It Leaked? West's Yeezus, which is slated for release tomorrow, leaked on Friday. Harlem MC A$AP Rocky's highly-anticipated record Long.Live.A$AP hit the internet almost a month ahead of release. That's just the way it is. So maybe the smart move is just to sell it to a device-maker early and then let the world—and the frustrated people of Twitter—do what they want with it, like, say, finding a way to rip the tracks and put them online. He's already sold one million records even if he does inadvertently cause an album leak to avoid having one.
Those one million records Samsung bought won't go towards Jay-Z's overall SoundScan sales figures for the album since they weren't purchased by consumers, but the hype, exclusive content being offered with the app, and fan engagement around the Galaxy release should "be a great thing for sales" even if it does lead to leaks, according to Nielsen entertainment analyst David Bakula.
"Jay-Z is just one of those artists – his fans are rabid, they are going to want the content immediately, any way that they can get it," Bakula told Wired. "Certainly the minute it gets out there, yeah, there's technology that is always going to enable people to [pirate it]. But the exclusive content, the early delivery, the cool factor around it ... That is something they're going to get through this promotion that doesn't come along for somebody who is pirating something and just wants the songs."
According to WSJ, the app necessary to hear Magna Carta will let users play the record but they won't be able to "share" it until the official release date 72 hours later so that may be the sharing Jay-Z was referring to. But as Bloomberg Businessweek noted this morning, the deal with Hova is likely more about making somone "remember that Jay-Z exclusives are the kind of thing she can expect to hold over her iPhone-toting friends if she buys the next Galaxy phone." What happens after the exclusive goes live is probably less important. Think of it this way: Very few people still remember—or use—Motorola pagers, but they do remember that Hova once asked, in song, that folks "Motorola two-way page me." The dude has staying power.
"This is nothing short of incredible, this is an amazing promotion," Bakula said. "It's a win for everybody: Jay-Z, Roc Nation, Samsung, the consumer – everybody's winning here. The part that is the really important part to focus on here is not 'Oh well it's not going to count for the chart because we're giving them away.' That's fine, but at the end of the day everybody's winning."
Is this the future of the music industry or a solution to avoiding piracy? Definitely not. There are very few people besides Jay-Z who can do this (and his wife Beyoncé is probably one of the others). Every one of his studio records has gone platinum and he already has a summer tour with the equally-popular Justin Timberlake, who was photographed in the studio with Hov just a few days ago, already planned. He's one of the best MCs in music and thanks to his longevity he's been amassing fans for over 15 years. He's one of very few artists for whom there will be a million people who definitely want to hear his new record. So this works for him, and Samsung, but it (probably) wouldn't work for, like, A$AP Rocky and HTC. Probably.
So, no, partnering with a device company may not be the way to release every album, but when you're Jay-Z and you've got the Holy Grail, it's probably the easiest way to keep it hidden until you're ready for it to be found.
