Jay-Z’s ‘Magna Carta’ Hits No. 1

Jim Ross/Invision, via Associated Press Jay-Z performing in London on Saturday.

As usual, Jay-Z got the last word.

His latest album, “Magna Carta … Holy Grail” (Roc-A-Fella/Universal), has reached No. 1 with the second-highest opening sales week of the year, despite a kerfuffle over Billboard’s chart’s rules that excluded one million digital giveaways sponsored by Samsung.

“Magna Carta” sold 527,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. As an opening bow, that is second only to Justin Timberlake’s “20/20 Experience,” which sold 968,000 copies in March. But “Magna Carta” has topped Spotify’s record for the most full-album streams in a week, with 14 million; Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” notched 9.5 million in May.

Last month, after Jay-Z announced that Samsung would give away one million copies of the album through an Android app,  Billboard disqualified those copies  from his charting sales total because they did not meet the magazine’s threshold of $3.49 cost to the consumer, a rule instituted two years ago after Amazon sold Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” for 99 cents.

When released,  the app faced complaints that it invaded users’ privacy, requiring them to give it access to their phone, e-mail and social media accounts. (Answering a Twitter question about the criticism, Jay-Z conceded: “must do better.”)

But in the end, Jay-Z got his No. 1 album â€" his 13th title to reach the top, which Billboard says is the most for any solo act in history.

Also this week, Ciara’s self-titled new album, released by Epic, opens at No. 2 with 58,000 sales; J. Cole’s “Born Sinner” (Roc Nation/Columbia), last week’s chart-topper, fell two spots to No. 3 with 39,000; the rock band Imagine Dragons holds at No. 4 with 32,000 sales of “Night Visions” (Interscope); and Florida Georgia Line is No. 5 with 31,000 of “Here’s to the Good Times” (Republic Nashville).