Good read: Samsung the big winner in Jay-Z partnership

KillSpray

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Who’s the winner here?

SAMSUNG!

I know, I know, it’s part of the hip-hop ethos, to stick it to the man, to take him for everything he’s worth, laughing all the while, and this is all very well done, Jay-Z appears thoughtful, one can argue he maintains his credibility…just one thing, it no longer matters whether anybody buys your album, whether you get paid, but whether people LISTEN TO IT!

So Samsung buys a million albums at five bucks apiece to give away..

Name one tune on Prince’s album. You know, the one they gave away with the newspaper, over in England. Hell, I can’t even remember its NAME!

We need a reboot in music. Everybody’s so busy scrambling for cash, declaring the old economics don’t work, that they’re sacrificing their very core.

I just don’t get it.

What is an artist anyway? Is an artist someone who makes a lot of money? Someone everybody knows the name of? Or someone whose music tests limits, makes one think, changes the culture. Will Jay-Z’s music do this? I’ve got no idea, but this campaign has got nothing to do with music and everything to do with money.

But it does get the word out. And that’s a hard thing to do today. Yes, more people know Jay-Z’s album is coming than yesterday, and that’s a good thing.

But one thing we know about stunts, they work once.

Radiohead could do name your price…once, and then the paradigm was dead.

Justin Timberlake overexposed himself to a hit, I’m not sure this is a replicable paradigm, if for no reason other than there’s only one Justin Timberlake.

So Jay-Z gives away his album via a Samsung app. How many more people are going to do this before the public tires of the game?

What ever happened to leading with the music?

Sure, there was a minor publicity campaign to get people interested in the Daft Punk album, but what truly sold it was the single, “Get Lucky.” How many tracks have you heard this good since? In the whole first half of the year?

In other words, Samsung lasts, acts come and go.

What’s the end game here? Tying in with Exxon, so you get the album with ten gallons of gas? Or one track for every Big Mac? Or a meeting with the artist if you open a Goldman Sachs account? Are we really just gonna go down the rabbit hole, selling our souls to the highest bidder, tying in with anybody who’ll pay?

Call me old-fashioned, call me a Luddite, but I like my music sans corporate endorsements. I want to believe the artist is only beholden to me. If the problem is you can’t make enough money, that the middle class is getting squeezed out, I want to band together with artists to change it, not have them shrug their shoulders and get in bed with the perpetrators of the problem.

You can blame the labels, you can blame the agents, you can blame the promoters, but the buck truly stops with the act. Only the act has the power to execute change.

And Jay-Z tying up with Samsung is not change I can believe in.

“Samsung to Give Away 1 Million Copies of Jay-Z’s New Album”

Www.lefsetz.com
 

Illeye buckmatic

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Good read but if camel drops a dope album,why not get the best of both worlds:yeshrug: Money and critical acclaim:manny: It doesn't have to be either/or with an artist of that stature. If the music good I could care less about this deal:ehh: I could never hate on a nikka making money:wow: Unless its fukkin up the quality of music:ufdup: But this deal shouldn't affect it one way or the other. Samsung isn't picking producers,guest appearances,or singles. Props to jigger on this deal.
 

OnlyInCalifornia

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If people are going to download it anyways might as well put it out this way. The point of the music is to get as many people to take it in as possible. This is a good way to do that. It isn't about one writers assumption that music is some sacred art that cannot be sold like a painting to the highest bidder.

Obviously the big corporation is the big winner, they always are.
 

L. Deezy

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Good read but if camel drops a dope album,why not get the best of both worlds:yeshrug: Money and critical acclaim:manny: It doesn't have to be either/or with an artist of that stature. If the music good I could care less about this deal:ehh: I could never hate on a nikka making money:wow: Unless its fukkin up the quality of music:ufdup: But this deal shouldn't affect it one way or the other. Samsung isn't picking producers,guest appearances,or singles. Props to jigger on this deal.

Well said...
 

Da King

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no shyt, Samsung just pimping out Jay to get the street creed/cool/hip/whatever factor that big companies desperately try to capture


Jay out there tap dancing for those Koreans
 

boskey

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Writer was biting from Phonte's twitter hard without giving him credit. How ironic :mjpls:

[ame]https://twitter.com/phontigallo/status/346646686606692352[/ame]

[ame]https://twitter.com/phontigallo/status/346649852446396419[/ame]

[ame]https://twitter.com/phontigallo/status/346650100745003008[/ame]
 

Da King

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mortuus est

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tumblr_mogm0q3xvw1rrvheyo1_500.png
 

KillSpray

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boskey

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yeah, he's stating the obvious


it's a one time gimmick that's ONLY possible because of Jay's name, but Jay trying to act like this a new era of music distribution he ushering in :heh:
Bu bu we got to change the rules breh :leostare:

:usure:

Article went up at 8am, phonte tweets at 11am... Looks like phonte is a fan of this guys blog too :mjpls:

Phonte said this yesterday at 11. And you did not post a link...
 

KillSpray

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Good read but if camel drops a dope album,why not get the best of both worlds:yeshrug: Money and critical acclaim:manny: It doesn't have to be either/or with an artist of that stature. If the music good I could care less about this deal:ehh: I could never hate on a nikka making money:wow: Unless its fukkin up the quality of music:ufdup: But this deal shouldn't affect it one way or the other. Samsung isn't picking producers,guest appearances,or singles. Props to jigger on this deal.

Agreed. But like some brehs said, jay acting like this is the future of music. It's not. But I think the thing we gotta expect is for fans, jigga stans especially, will listen to the music biased by Jays ability to create an event around it. That may really be jiggas real legacy, how he can influence how people hear the music. That's when you get people saying shyt like "jigga stunting is real, he got Obama on the text!!!!" Like that makes the music good.
 
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We were all going to download the album anyway. If I KNEW that people wouldn't buy it and a company steps forward and says "we'll be buy it for 5...but we'll buy a million copies right now" It would be an easy decision.

All that matters is the music, that is true.... but we're assuming that the involvement of a large company means the music suffers, and since we haven't heard the album we cant make that statement
 
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