
By making Jay-Z’s album available to its users (and only its users) ahead of time, Samsung isn’t just using Jay-Z’s credibility to create an aura of cool around the Galaxy S4 it’s requiring true Jay-Z fans to purchase one to take part.
#Samsung buy jay z albums tv
Jackson in its TV spots, BlackBerry has “global creative director” Alicia Keys, and Microsoft has Jessica Alba and Gwen Stefani. Partly, Samsung is pushing the envelope because the smartphone world has gotten so packed with celebrities. The deal is a true example of ad symbiosis - which might explain why Jay-Z agreed to sell his albums to Samsung for the bargain price of $5 apiece. He got a million guaranteed album sales, a new mobile distribution channel created specifically for him just as the music business is struggling to adapt to the rise of mobile computing, and a buzz-building early release date that is sure to draw media attention. With the Samsung deal, Jay-Z got more than a job title.

(As part of the deal, Jay became a “co-brand director” for Budweiser Select, a ceremonial job title that seems to have consisted of doing exactly nothing on the beer’s behalf.) But it was still a largely one-sided deal Budweiser cut the check, and Jay-Z pretended to care about the product they were hawking. The Budweiser deal was pretty forward-thinking at the time, since it involved slightly more than Jay-Z selling the TV rights to one of his songs and walking away a few million dollars richer. And it’s a perfect example of the new celebrity-sponsorship model, which looks a lot different from the old “We cut you a check, you film a 60-second TV spot” rigmarole.Ĭompare Jay-Z’s Samsung deal to the one he signed with Budweiser in 2006, as his Kingdom Come album was being released. The deal shows that smartphone endorsements are now as high-profile and lucrative as other spokesman gigs. Samsung paid a reported $5 million to buy a million copies of Jay-Z’s upcoming album, Magna Carta Holy Grail, which will be distributed to owners of Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones through a specialized app three days ahead of its general-audience release.
#Samsung buy jay z albums movie
Now athletes, movie stars, and popular musical acts are shilling for smartphones in an effort to pad their income. It used to be that beverage companies, shoe brands, and clothing lines were the bread and butter of the celebrity-sponsorship circuit. Rihanna, who is signed to Jay Z's Roc Nation and is an artist owner of Tidal, also had a similar deal in place for her latest album, ANTI.Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/2013 Getty Images
#Samsung buy jay z albums free
In 2013, he released Magna Carta Holy Grail and partnered on an exclusive app with Samsung that included one million free downloads of the album. Jay Z has a past history with the South Korean electronics company. "Samsung is re-engaging they are working on something really big, and they’re keeping it very quiet in case it leaks," a source told the New York Post. Tidal is reportedly valued at $100 million, and while the company has seen its share of success over the last year, it's still well behind Spotify, which boasts over 25 million subscribers.

More recently, the company received a major boost in subscriptions thanks to an exclusive release of Kanye's new album, The Life of Pablo.

The rapper acquired the company for $56 million in 2015 and in March of last year brought on over a dozen performers as artist owners, including Kanye West, Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Nicki Minaj.īack in September, Tidal hit the million subscriber mark. Grand opening, grand closing? According to the New York Post, Samsung is reportedly in talks to purchase Jay Z's music streaming service, Tidal.
