My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: Beyonce's latest album released entirely on Apple iTunes - Queen Bee's Cornucopia Breaking Bad iTunes records via an efficient Music Delivery monetizing Music Videos eye-Candy

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Beyonce's latest album released entirely on Apple iTunes - Queen Bee's Cornucopia Breaking Bad iTunes records via an efficient Music Delivery monetizing Music Videos eye-Candy

“I didn't want to release my music the way I've done it. I am bored with that. I feel like I am able to speak directly to my fans”

Beyoncé Knowles on the exclusive release of her fifth self-titled Album “Beyonce” on iTunes

That right dear reader!

Beyonce Knowles or just Beyonce aka Queen B as I call her, without warning released her album “Beyonce” with a total of 31 tracks, 14 of which are songs and the other 17 being accompanying music videos of her album Beyonce on iTunes on Friday December 13th 2013 as stated in the article entitled “Beyoncé releases iTunes exclusive album”, published Friday, December 13, 2013 8:12 AM, The Jamaica Observer and in “Beyonce stuns fans by suddenly dropping new album on iTunes”, published Dec. 13, 2013 at 4:02 AM ET by Bruna Nessif E! Online, Today.

Also this slideshow on Today is quite an interesting snapshot of her life thus far!

All this without a word or even a PR (Public Relations) machine pre-hyping the event, to the shock of many in the Marketing and Advertising Community! Looks like her vacation in Jamaica at the Trident Hotel in Portland and a quick spin by Geejam Studios as stated in “PHOTO: Beyoncé cooling out in Jamaica”, published Wednesday, December 04, 2013 10:31 AM, The Jamaica Observer freed her mind, Matrix Style!



Her reason as per her statement above is obvious and clear: she wants you to listen to her ENTIRE album instead of choosing what you wanna hear. Also it’s a great pre-Christmas present on a day usually associated with Bad luck. It obvious she’s really into this, as a visit to her YouTube channel reveals that her most recent posts are 31 second clips of each video

Beyonce album Cornucopia Michael Jackson Style – iTunes drop more efficient Music Delivery

It’s also strategically a good move. With no pre-hype rumor, you have no idea what to expect, so it comes as a complete surprise, somewhat akin to Google’s launch of Google Android Kitkat as described in my blog article entitled “Google Nexus 5 running Google Android 4.4 possibly launching on Monday October 14 2013 - Google KitKat is the first Product Placement smartphone OS that'll Gimme me a Break” and as detailed in my Geezam blog article entitled “Google Android 4.4 is now KitKat as Nestle-Google Secret Deal makes Android the first Product Placement OS”.



For that reason, fans of   who download her songs and videos from iTunes will haveto enjoy all of her music at once, instead of pre-selecting the music and making only music Videos for those songs that got heavy rotation on the Radio Stations.

Plus it’s promised to be good; collabs are featured in the album with Jay Z, Drake, Frank Ocean, Pharrell Williams, former Destiny’s Child singer Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, Justin Timberlake and her baby girl Blue Ivy. That’s right, a visual of Blue Ivy, making even me interested in downloading this new album and I’m normally not a music person.


This makes the effort of the artiste seem more worthwhile; you enjoy all of her songs at once instead of a hype-driven music PR machine wasting time pushing a particular song via prelaunch events, videos and concerts.

Numbers don’t Lie – Beyonce sales on iTunes set to break records for Album Launch

And it seems to be working too, apparently breaking Apple iTunes album sales records as stated in the article Beyonce album breaks iTunes sales records, published December 16, 2013 2:14 p.m. EST by Alistair Barr, USA TODAY.  The album’s selling quite well on Apple iTunes breaking Apple iTunes stats to become the most downloaded song in iTunes history with 828,773  sold over the three day weekend as stated in “Beyonce’s Surprise Album Sets Three-Day Global Sales Record on iTunes”, published Dec 16, 2013 By Lyneka Little, Wall Street Journal.

In fact the stats are incredible, considering the lack of a pre-hype of the album and even it’s launch on Friday December 13th 2013, when most album releases are traditionally on a Tuesday as stated in “Apple Says ‘Beyoncé’ Set a Record on iTunes”, Published December 16, 2013 By BEN SISARIO, New York Times. The Stats tell a better story than I ever can:

1.      828,773 downloads globally in its first three days
2.      617,213 in the United States alone in the first three days
3.      No. 1 on iTunes’s sales rankings in 104 countries

Her album release ranks fourth overall for any album release in the United States of America this 2013 as can be seen from the stats below:

1.      968,000 sales for Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience” 
2.      792,000 sales for Eminem’s “The Marshall Mathers LP 2”
3.      658,000 sales for Drake’s “Nothing Was the Same”
4.      617,213 sales for Beyonce's “Beyonce”

This is far better than her last album "4", which sold 310,000 copies in its first week two years ago, and the downloads are still piling on!

This is very unusual in the now hype-driven Music World as noted in the article “Beyonce drops new album on iTunes: Fans, marketers gasp”, published December 13, 2013 9:57 AM PST by Chris Matyszczyk, CNET News though not entirely new to us Jamaican Musicians still seeking an International Buss.

Tanya Stephens had also released her seventh album “Infallible” back in April 2010 this way as state in “Tanya Stephens releases free album” published April 29, 2010, The Jamaica Star, albeit that was a free release and not on iTunes. So too did Tessanne Chin, now a true contended and possible winner of “The Voice” as stated in my blog article entitled “Tessanne Chin now in the Top 3 in The Voice - Historic #BreadandButter Victory within Grasp for Tessanne Chin as Blake Shelton supports her je ne sais quoi Voice”. In the case of Tessanne Chin, her album In Between Words, wasn’t doing so well until it got a boost from her appearance on “The Voice”,


Dancehall artiste can learn a thing or two from Beyonce, who had recently vacationed here in Jamaica based on her Tumblr Blog of some really stunning bikini photos and shots of our islands beauty as stated in “Here Are Beyonce's Bikini-Filled, Jamaican Vacation Photos”, viewed December 17 2013, Celebuzz.

She may have been influenced by the Music here while vacationing at the Trident Hotel and taking time off to also check out Geejam Studios as stated in “That is one sexy Bey-kini body! Beyoncé shows off her incredible figure in a metallic two-piece on Jamaican break”, published: 17:13 GMT, 4 December 2013 | UPDATED: 18:58 GMT, 4 December 2013 By SARAH BULL, The UK Daily Mail.

After all, it hasn’t been a very good year for Reggae artiste, with the majority of album sales being dominated by Foreign artiste as stated in “Dismal sales in 2013”, published Friday, December 13, 2013, The Jamaica Observer and “Songs that rocked the dancehall”, Friday, December 13, 2013, The Jamaica Observer.

Granted, this may seem to be a very expensive venture, that of making the Music in the album and the Videos all at the same. But if it has this marked increase in engagement in the artiste music on the same level as it used to be with Michael Jackson’s music and presents a way to monetize Music video downloads, then it’s worth a shot.

I know it should, as after all, I still download most of my music, Television Shows as well as Music Videos using the method described in my blog article entitled “How to download High Quality Music via torrenting - The Mortal Instruments City of Bones used to get Free Music”. So getting your music and Video fix for your favourite artiste should make it possible to generate more buzz for the artiste album releases by allowing them to experience what the artiste intended when they made their music.

Beyonce the Wise Queen Bee – Monetizing Music Videos eye-Candy is the Wave of the Future

This move to sell her entire 14 song album and 17 accompanying Videos album on Apple iTunes is thus a wise move. Sales are not only guaranteed but so too is engagement with each song instead of just favourites. Throw in the collabs with the likes of husband Jay Z, Drake, Frank Ocean, Pharrell Williams, former Destiny’s Child singer Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, Justin Timberlake and her baby girl Blue Ivy and this is probably the Greatest Christmas Present any artist could gift to their Fans.


It also means too we get a front-row seat to her mind’s eye; wit the music videos already pre-built, we can now see what the artiste had in mind for her music based on the song she wrote, as by launching a polished set of videos at the same time as her song release, the songs and videos are more resonant with each other. Had the videos been done later, they’d have probably been a lot different and not so close to the true original meaning that the artiste wished to impart to her fans.

It also for the first time monetizes Music Videos, instead of just eye-candy for YouTube Social Media followers. And although this will not fight Music Piracy any time soon, it’ll be sure to make it easier to love her music as now we can see what she intended when she wrote each song by including a video along with it as well.

If you like Beyonce, then check out her album and follow the artiste:


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