For those of us who had trouble with the Samsung promotional download for “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” Jay-Z had a few words of sympathy during an interview on New York”s Power 105 radio station this morning.
“I can’t even imagine waiting for Rakim’s album at 12 o’clock and I couldn’t get it and I downloaded – I did everything right,” Jay-Z said. “On the 24th I downloaded my app, I set it, I watched the clock count down and at 12 ‘clock I couldn’t get it. For me that’s not cool.”
Jay-Z blames an overloaded infrastructure for the delay fans experienced in trying to download the album. “It’s not even a number that you can fathom; it’s 20 times the amount we thought was going to happen. So you can’t even prepare service for that, it’s very difficult.”
He knows that as the guinea pig for this form of digital distribution, he could experience glitches that will be ironed out for the next artist. That has to get better,” he urged. “The next person now knows how to go into it better, which is cool and that’s my job. I took the hit for that.” (h/t MTV News).
Of course, all this doesn”t explain why I had so much trouble playing individual songs more than 24 hours after the download launched. I would have to close the app and re-open it to go from one song to the next.
In other Jay-Z news (because there”s always news), he talked about dancing around with Beyonce in their stocking feet to her music to New York radio host Angie Martinez from Hot 97 on Tuesday.
According to MTV News, he also told Martinez that Beyonce has “100,000 amazing song,” but didn”t give any details on when we”d get to hear the 12 or so that would make up an album beyond the three or four that has dripped out this year. As far as a little sibling for Blue Ivy, he says he would love that. “Absolutely, God willing.”
And if downloading the Samsung app for “MCHG” or buying it via iTunes or on CD wasn”t your thing, Jack White”s Third Man Records will release “MGCH” on vinyl “in coming weeks,” according to a press release. The vinyl version will include a bonus track called “Open Letter.”