Jay Z’s latest album Magna Carter Holy Grail went platinum literally before it hit the store shelves, this is all due to the power #digital downloads.
There have been many critical reviews about this digital campaign. Here is how the digital campaign worked – the summed up version.
Samsung gave away 1 million free copies of Magna Carta Holy Grail to Galaxy S III, Galaxy S4, and Galaxy Note II owners on July 4th (almost a week ahead of the public release on July 4), as long as they downloaded the promotional app. Patrons had to give personal data in exchange for the album download. The App received in excess of 20million hits in fanatics who tried to download the album, so much so that hackers made “alternatives” means to make the album available.
Apart from the technical glitches and some critics who have questioned the integrity of the deal, it is believed that this campaign was truly one of its kind. So much so that RIIA – Recording Industry Association of America - is changing the way it certifies releases as gold and platinum, in part because of Samsung purchasing 1 million copies of Magna Carta Holy Grail. “Going forward, sales of albums in digital format will become eligible on the release date, while sales of albums in physical format will still become eligible for certification 30 days after the release date,” Liz Kennedy, Director, Communications and Gold & Platinum Program, RIAA, wrote on riaa.com July 1. Traditionally, a release is certified gold once it sells 500,000 units and earns platinum status once it sells 1 million units, and had been available for purchase for at least 30 days.
Some purists have also questioned whether digital downloads are the same as ”real” hard copy sales. See what LL Cool J had to say http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qawVAls77I
On the home front there is but one name synonymous with digital download sale and that is @djcleo1. The AllstarDJ has won numerous accolades for being a leading artist in the South African digital music shelves. See what the Chief eNitiater wrote in 2011 about him & the prediction on the future of digital downloads as a “great fire starter.
Some argue that the dynamics in South Africa have changed especially with the shut down of AfrodesiaMP3…. see this conversation thread about how some fanatics felt about the shut down. One can’t help wonder if in South Africa will there ever be such a case as the Jay Z Magna Carta Holy Grail? Given that in SA we don’t have a platform where we publish numbers for public knowledge. To confirm this statement I did my own dip stick.
I searched for a South African online portal that would be thee go to portal with information about music downloads. SAmp3 came up ahead of iTunes, I then searched for my favorite duo #Liquideep , but the results found were not the most updated data.
So it based on these findings that I made my statement about there not being a reliable local platform we can go to when we need clarity of #digital downloads. But as we are observing, our overseas counterparts are milking it through #digital downloads.
What’s your take on this issues from an international & local point of view ?
