Jay-Z is teaming up with Samsung to release his new album, and the company is giving away a million copies to its cellphone subscribers as a promotion.
The Brooklyn rapper made the announcement with a three-minute commercial during the half-time of the NBA finals on Sunday night. The album, called “Magna Carta Holy Grail,†will come out on July 7, but will be made available for free three days earlier to Samsung subscribers through a mobile application.
The commercial shows Jay-Z hanging out in a studio, working on the album â€" his 12th studio effort â€" with the producers Rick Rubin, Pharrell Williams, Swizz Beatz and Timbaland. “Pretty much what the album is about is this duality, how do you navigate your way through this whole thing, through success, through failures, through all this, and remain yourself,†he says.
The only reference to Samsung is some text on a black screen at the end plugging Samsung’s Galaxy phone and directing people to a Web site that explains the download.
The commercial provoked grumbling on Twitter among hip-hop fans who accused Jay-Z of selling out. It is not the first time, however, that Jay-Z has partnered with a cellphone company to market his music: He made a deal with Nokia to preload an “The Black Album†on one model back in 2003. And Jay-Z has proven himself a master of leveraging the marketing power of major corporations and basketball teams in other contexts.
His partnership with Budweiser on the new “Made in America†music festival in Philadelphia is an example, not to mention how he used his tiny stake in the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center last year to raise his own public profile.
Samsung is a leader in the mobile phone market, and its Galaxy smart phones have been challenging Apple’s dominance in the market. The Wall Street Journal reported the company had paid Jay-Z $5 for each of the one million albums it will give away as part of the promotion.
But the partnership seems to signal two realities of today’s market: cellphone companies see music and music discovery as key to marketing their phones, and corporate partners are playing an increasingly important role in marketing in the music industry, which has seen album sales cut in half over the last decade.
