the edge of rewriting the rules of the industry, an industry with which he
had tumultuous ties. He believed that the incredible volume of the Samsung
deal would place his album at the top of the Billboard chart.
Business Insider declared that the deal would “change music forever.”
“Samsung made Jay-Z’s new album profitable before it was even
released, scoring a major win for both brand and artist with the
announcement of their deal,” reported Billboard’s Andrew Hampp. CNN
dedicated six minutes of every hour to the story for a day. It was a marker
that the winds were shifting in the music ecosystem.
1 million, 2 million, 3 million, 20 million
Oh, I’m so good at math
Might crash ya Internet.Neither Jay-Z nor Samsung realized that when he rapped these lyrics on
the upcoming album’s song “SomewhereinAmerica,” he was speaking
prophecy.
Pendleton and his team were out partying with Jay-Z and his wife,
Beyoncé, at midnight on July 4, when the album went live for download on
Samsung devices—three days before its release to everyone else. On the
app’s main screen on the Galaxy phones, a clock ticked down to midnight
and displayed an image of the album art—two sculptures out of Greek
antiquity.
At the stroke of midnight, fans around the world raced their fingers
across their Galaxy screens to start the download.
Then the app froze.
“Jay!” Pendleton called over to Jay-Z at the launch party. “We broke the
Internet!”
The picture of the album cover art sat there without downloading.
Seconds passed. Then minutes. Frustrated Jay-Z fans frantically rebooted
their phones again and again to no avail.
“#SamsungFail” became an explosive hashtag on Twitter. Yet Samsung,
true to its style, remained quiet. “#JayZ’s sponsors at #Samsung prove
themselves not only intrusive, but technically inept...#SamsungFail,”
Korean American journalist Hannah Bae later tweeted.
The server had been overwhelmed, destroying much of the marketing
value of the campaign. Pirated files went up online, and some American