Today, ninety-five percent of music downloads around the world are illegal. The availability of free music downloads has been a major ongoing problem in the music industry and has cost the music industry $12.5 billion dollars in economic losses. So a question arises: What can artists do at this point? Artists today are producing less music today as they feel that pivoting into the fashion and movie industries could generate more profit. Jay Z on the other hand, chose to deal with these threats differently.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/24/samsung-magna-carta-app/

Jay Z partnered up with Samsung for the release of his newest album, Magna Carta Holy Grail. This deal cost Samsung $20 million, and $5 million dollars went into purchasing one million of these albums. Samsung device owners were able to benefit from this as many were able to get the album for free, three days before the actual release date of the albums. Knowing that Samsung spends $4 billion dollars on marketing per year, this marketing campaign was proven to be affordable and effective, leading towards more sales and brand awareness. Jay Z benefited from this deal as well, as he was guaranteed a platinum album and $5 million in sales before his album was even released.

This deal allowed Jay Z to cut out some of the costs of the middlemen (stores, distribution and printing), thus allowing him to profit more. He is successful for creating a new method for modern artists to make money and is looked upon as a powerful businessman.

Inside “Magna Carta Holy Grail” with JAY Z + Samsung

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B–ZARCwSIE