Want the new Jay-Z album for free? Samsung’s got your back

This is interesting. Korean tech giant Samsung is set to give away a million copies of rapper Jay-Z’s album for free.

The album, entitled Magna Carta Holy Grail has a 4 July release date and is set to be given away to Samsung Galaxy phone owners 72 hours ahead of the official release.

According to The Wall Street Journal, users will receive the music through an app later this month, although they won’t be able to share it until the official release date.

Samsung reportedly shelled out US$5 a piece for the album. It’s not clear however whether they downloads will count as official sales.

As the Journal points out though, the deal is a massive boon for the rapper, who’s guaranteed US$5-million in sales before the album even comes out.

But why would Samsung shell out for this kind of partnership? After all, the album will go to existing Galaxy smartphone customers, meaning that it won’t result in an immediate boost in sales. There is however something to be said for the kind of cred a partnership with someone like Jay-Z gives the company.

But there’s also that app. It seems unlikely that it would be useful for just a single album. The partnership could therefore be the launch of Samsung’s bid to compete with Apple’s recently launched iTunes Radio, works like Pandora, using featured stations to listen to. If you like a song you can buy it directly on iTunes.

The multi-award winning rapper had apparently hinted at the deal a couple of days previously, telling people to “tune in” to the basketball game where it was first advertised.

Image: Mikamote (via Wikimedia Commons) .