As the launch of his new album rolls out, the full extent of Jay-Z’s new $20m partnership with Samsung is beginning to emerge – led by Samsung giving away one million copies of the album on 4 July to owners of Samsung Galaxy S3 & S4 smartphones and Galaxy Note 2 tablets.
The new ‘Magna Carta Holy Grail’ record won’t be available for public sale until 7 July.
Samsung are reported to have paid $5m to offset the costs of the one million records ($5 for each album downloaded).
In addition to the mid June launch of a ‘Magna Carta Holy Grail Complex’ Samsung TV spot,
Jay-Z and the Korean conglomerate are running a series of webfilms, in a similar creative style as the commercial, in which the artist discusses the record, his creative process and career.
The initiative also includes an app, which can be downloaded at http://smsng.us/MCHG, which enables fans to unlock the record’s lyrics and enter the competition to receive the album itself.
Comment
Jay-Z’s Samsung partnership is yet another sign ofhow musicians are seeking and finding new ways to promote, market, fund and distribute their music
Jay-Z’s new brand-led album launch partnership also shows potential for the brand and the artist to develop a longer and in-depth relationship over the next few years from exclusive content and pre-releases to more mainstream marketing.
While there are potential limites to such as huge deal and focus with a single artist, after all this will largely only appeal to a single specific fan-base, but entrepreneur and business Jay-Z is more than just a musician and has potential assets stretching beyond his own records to other music talent and fashion lines and sports interests too
From Lady Gaga’s 2011 initiative that saw her sell 440,000 copies of her ‘Born This Way’ album on Amazon for just 99 cents, to Taylor’s Swift’s ‘Red’ album partnership with Target, Walgreens and Papa John’s, we are now constantly witnessing new approaches to brand/band partnerships.
Links
Samsung & Jay-Z 3 Minute TVC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B–ZARCwSIE
Rocnation Website
Jay-Z Twitter
Samsung Website
