S. Samuel
Bad Boy Records CEO Diddy has weighed in on Jay-Z breaking new ground by partnering up with technology giant Samsung for the release of his upcoming solo album Magna Carta Holy Grail.
Diddy said while in Cannes, he had a chance to talk to Young Hov about their respective power moves and what the Samsung deal could mean for the future.
“While I was out here I called Jay and me and him been talking back and forth about the network and about his deal and how proud we were of each other. We’re actually changing together the business model of the music industry. As far as our power, you can see the power that we have, not me and Jay-Z, the power that we have as a culture that Samsung now is going to give Apple a run for its money. People actually believe and we believe in our leaders in hip-hop. What they say is cool and what they say is next and we recognized that what Samsung is doing is moving forward. We were like “Hey man, we may need to give this Galaxy joint a chance” and that’s a lot of power, man.” (VIBE)
The new venture has even made rap executive Master P speak out in support.
“To be honest with you, I think it’s genius to partner up with a technology company,” Master P said of Jay’s big moves. “I’m working on [my album] right now and hopefully Verizon will call me real soon.” P went with his new idea, continuing, “My next record… I’ll drop it through them and do it at a football game or something,” he said, laughing and saluting Hov for continuing to think outside of the box. (MTV)
Samsung raised a few eyebrows after reports of the technology giant purchasing one million of Jay’s album surfaced.
The connection: Samsung has purchased 1 million copies of Jay-Z’s coming album, entitled “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” slated for release July 4, and plans to give them to Samsung Galaxy smartphone users for free – 72 hours ahead of the release. The users are to receive the music through an app they’ll receive later this month. (Recipients won’t be able to share it until the official release date.) Samsung paid $5 apiece for the albums, according to a person familiar with the matter. It wasn’t immediately clear if Nielsen SoundScan will count Samsung’s purchases in its sales tallies. (Wall Street Journal)
No stranger to huge business deals, Diddy recently teamed with television giant Time Warner Cable for his Revolt TV channel.
Together with previously announced distribution, this will make Revolt one of the largest launches in cable TV history when it goes live this fall. Revolt TV will be available to Time Warner Cable customers when it launches in the fall. This broad reach is especially significant for Revolt TV in gaining early traction in major urban markets across the United States. Envisioned as a maverick television channel with an emphasis on music programming, live content and a robust social media component, Revolt TV is scheduled to launch in Fall 2013. (Revolt TV News)
