Jay-Z disses iTunes, and his fans
This should be quite interesting for a first blog. A quick FYI, I’ve wanted to start a blog for the past two years. I now have some free time and am going to start doing 1 blog a week while tweaking design/setup of this blog so bare with me.
Jay-Z recently released his 10th studio album “American Gangster”. If you haven’t heard of this, its a concept album inspired by the film with the same name. By the way I’ve seen the film and it’s quite good, so go see that if you haven’t! Back to Jay-Z’s album; This album is predicted to be his 10th No. 1 album. This means he will have tied with legendary Elvis Presley for most No.1 albums which only further solidifies his status as a musical legend. Still awake? Okay next up is the fun part.
So on November 6th Jay-Zs album came out. I’m a fan of Jay-Z and I enjoy supporting artists who create awesome music so naturally I preordered his album through iTunes on November 5th. I’m a naturally busy guy, I cant stay idle for too long and I need to keep it movin’ so to speak so it took me a few days to find out he pulled it from iTunes. Earlier today I finally got around to checking iTunes to finish downloading the album (through iTunes you usually download the single available then come back to get the rest of the album on the release date) and his album isn’t there. I look at the single I downloaded and click to get information on the Album its from but it gives me the following error…
First I’m like… okay… Jay-Z must have released his album in the non-US store instead of allowing the US iTunes store to be able to download it. Wait what… this is strange. I spend another 10 minutes looking up his name, album, songs, etc. Am I trapped in some alternate universe where I’m not allowed to download rap albums at 3am in the morning while drinking redbulls?? Eventually I Google Jay-Z and his elusive album to find a few news articles talking about his removal of the album from iTunes. Why would you do this Jay-Z? Dont you know a few people use iTunes? Also why was I able to preorder it the night before?
But alast I’m a sucker for rap music. So okay Jay-Z, you win. Ill do what you want me to do. Heres part of an article from XXLMag.com,
Jay-Z pulled American Gangster from the popular iTunes Music Store. According to Jay-Z, he feels the project should be digested as a whole, and not as single tracks. “As movies are not sold scene by scene, this collection will not be sold as individual singles,” Jay said in a statement. Since its debut in 2003, iTunes has let users download individual tracks from officially released albums, allowing them to purchase only the songs they want rather than an entire LP. The album is available for digital download, in its entirety, at Rocafella.com, Amazon.com and Rhapsody.com.
There are articles all over the web about this issue. I found XXLMag first, but after that I bounced around to others like FastCompany and Variety.
Okay Jay-Z, its a bit of an inconvenience to download it from one of these places as I’ve never used them before. I decide to go with Rocafella.com since it is his site after all. I go onto his site, locate the digital album, punch in my credit card info (have fun maxing it out Jay-Z), sigh, and follow through to the download page. Apparently you have to download this little file from PureTracks.com that will facilitate the downloading of his masterpiece album that can only be bought as a whole.
The program loads up and the files start downloading at decent speeds. It clocks me in at 2 minutes remaining to have the album. I started to think how easy this was, and I was stressing over his decision to remove it from iTunes. Sorry I ever doubted you Jay-Z…. oh wait… whats this…
Its about 3 hours since I purchased the album from Rocafella.com and I still get this message. Apparently 4 of the songs (in a random order) are unavailable for download. They just say “Try again later”. I’m kind of irritated, frustrated, and confused. How am I supposed to “digest” your album in its entirety if I cant even obtain it in its entirety from Rocafella.com, where you mentioned people should get it instead of iTunes.
Jay-Z… what kind of sad irony are you going for? He doesn’t let iTunes distribute it because he only wants it sold in its entirety but his own site wont let me download it in its entirety.
I’m going to go back to work and occasionally check out the PureTracks page to see if I get to listen to the other 4 tracks off your album.
If I dont get the 4 tracks downloaded can I get a refund in its entirety?
So a quick warning to the wise, DONT purchase a digital copy of Jay-Zs album off of Rocafella.com.
I’m sure Jay-Z thought he could generate more revenue by not allowing people to get the individual tracks but he is hurting his brand and aggravating his loyal fan base.Will I be buying another album from Jay-Z? Dont bank on that.
Theres a lesson every webmaster or small business owner can take from this. If you are going to try and do something different, make sure you do it right (or as close to it as possible!) The last think you want to do is annoy your customers/visitors/fan base or come off as a money hungry hypocrite.
November 9th, 2007 at 6:12 am
Dang yo, thats messed up. He needs to make up his mind ‘fo he get blazed
November 14th, 2007 at 4:52 am
Ayyo, forget Jay-Z mayne.
November 18th, 2007 at 3:00 am
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