Samsung has purchased 1 million copies of Jay-Z’s coming album, entitled “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” slated for release July 4, and plans to give them to Samsung Galaxy smartphone users for free – 72 hours ahead of the release. The users are to receive the music through an app they’ll receive later this month. (Recipients won’t be able to share it until the official release date.)

Samsung paid $5 apiece for the albums, according to a person familiar with the matter. It wasn’t immediately clear if Nielsen SoundScan will count Samsung’s purchases in its sales tallies.

For Jay-Z, the deal is a precious advertising opportunity and gives him $5 million in sales before the album is even released. The agreement signals the increasing importance of corporate sponsors to the music industry, which has seen sales tank over the past decade.

Buzz Track: Slow Motion

Social Club has become a Kings favorite. The San Diego pop rock band has solidified their sound with an unrelenting presence both live and on the Internet. After releasing their debut EP, Pictureshow, Social Club inked a deal with Pacific Records, a regional label. Following this release, Social Club quickly rose to the top of the San Diego music scene, pulling record crowds at local venues and finding feature spots on local televisions and radio shows. Their live performances incorporates influences of the driving beats of bands like The Killers and Arctic Monkeys.
Contact: SocialClubJams@gmail.com

BMI wants Pandora to pay the piper. Or at least pay the piper a little more.

Music licensing company BMI filed suit against internet music streaming service Pandora on Thursday, demanding higher licensing fees and accusing Pandora of trying to do an end-run around BMI’s licensing rate structure.

In the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in southern New York, BMI contends that, despite Pandora and other streaming services’ growing share of the music-listening marketplace — and accompanying increase in advertising revenues — Pandora has been paying an unreasonably low licensing rate, and in fact has been lobbying Congress to lower its fees even further. Read more

Steven Spielberg on Wednesday predicted an “implosion” in the film industry is inevitable, whereby a half dozen or so $250 million movies flop at the box office and alter the industry forever. What comes next — or even before then — will be price variances at movie theaters, where “you’re gonna have to pay $25 for the next Iron Man, you’re probably only going to have to pay $7 to see Lincoln.” He also said that Lincoln came “this close” to being an HBO movie instead of a theatrical release.

George Lucas agreed that massive changes are afoot, including film exhibition morphing somewhat into a Broadway play model, whereby fewer movies are released, they stay in theaters for a year and ticket prices are much higher. His prediction prompted Spielberg to recall that his 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial stayed in theaters for a year and four months. Read more

Buzz Track: Shame

25 year old Andria Simone is making a name for herself borrowing from Aretha Franklin, Amy Winehouse, and Adele yet bringing something completely new to the table. She was born and raised in Toronto and her voice and style reached the ears of Toronto JUNO Award-winning music producers. Andria was a Featured performer at Canadian Music Fest 2013 for CMW and her song “Do What I Want” was licensed by NIKE CANADA for a Fitness Campaign
Contact: deejtree@gmail.com