Jay-Z's MCHG Album Free App Release Will Not Qualify for Billboard Chart

[Elano The One And Only]

The release of Jay-Z's new album, Magna Carta Holy Grail, enters into new territory in the landscape of corporate branding. As reported, the album will come out via an app on Samsung Galaxy phones, essentially existing within an advertisement for the company. The app itself is available June 24, with the album released on July 4. One million apps will be available for free to Galaxy users.
That means Samsung essentially bought one million advance copies of Magna Carta Holy Grail for its customers. Of those "sales," Jay-Z wrote on Twitter, "If 1 Million records gets SOLD and billboard doesnt report it, did it happen? Ha. #newrules #magnacartaholygrail Platinum!!! VII IV XIII"
Today Billboard's editor Bill Werde has posted a letter online clarifying that those Samsung-bought "sales" will not count towards the Billboard 200 chart.
Werde's letter reads:

It wasn't as simple as you might think to turn down Jay-Z when he requested that we count the million albums that Samsung "bought" as part of a much larger brand partnership, to give away to Samsung customers. True, nothing was actually for sale-- Samsung users will download a Jay-branded app for free and get the album for free a few days later after engaging with some Jay-Z content. The passionate and articulate argument by Jay's team that something was for sale and Samsung bought it also doesn't mesh with precedent...
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. But in the context of this promotion, nothing is actually for sale.

Werde mentions that Billboard will hold discussions in coming weeks to decide whether or not brand-bought sales should qualify for the Billboard 200 chart in the future.

[Hack Wilson - real]

Elano's dream job would be to work for Perez Hilton