Jay-Z set the internet on fire when he announced his partnership with Samsung for the release of his 12th studio album Magna Carta Holy Grail through a commercial displaying HOV with Rick Rubin, Timbaland, Swizz Beats and Pharrell.
The power move is set to give the first million Samsung customers Jay-Z’s album, Magna Carta Holy Grail, weeks earlier than the release for free. Statistically, this classified Jay-Z’s album as platinum before it had even been released something Jay referred to as “#NewRules.”
Speculation around whether or not an album can reach platinum, or any status for that matter, prior to being released was up to Billboard. Apparently, Jay’s “new rules” didn’t fly with Billboard as they recently featured an article entitled “Jay-Z’s New Blueprint,” focusing on his deal with Samsung and the refusal to count Magna Carta’s 1 million pre-orders as sales. Although, the article reveals that it could’ve indeed been possible for the pre-orders to have counted as sales if they had paid an extra fee.
Below is an excerpt from Billboard further explaining how the album pre-orders could’ve counted as sales:
“Had Jay-Z and Samsung charged $3.49 — our minimum pricing threshold for a new release to count on our charts — for either the app or the album, the U.S. sales would have registered. And ultimately, that’s the rub: The ever-visionary Jay-Z pulled the nifty coup of getting paid as if he had a platinum album before one fan bought a single copy.”
I guess it’s “Go Home!” for HOV’s intended #NewRules.
– John Weber (@JohnPaulWeber)
