Those Watching the Throne will have a hard time looking away.
If there was anyone that could keep this mega-project from being released to the public before the scheduled release date, it was this duo of Jay-Z and Kanye West. With Watch The Throne being distributed digitally first and then physical copies hitting Best Buy shelves August 12th, there seems to be a plan in place to make the most cash possible. The news that these CDs would only be released at Best Buys nationwide caused uproar amongst independently owned record shops- indie stores and privately owned places that have been struggling to stay afloat in a time and age when no one pays for music anymore. But this phenomenon has taken its toll on the entire industry, and that includes the musicians themselves. It seems the only ones making out in all of this are us as the listeners.
John Meneilly, Jigga’s manager, has come out to say this Best Buy only deal was to avoid a leak. I guess the probability of a privately owned record shop employee swiping a copy of the heralded product is higher than a Best Buy employee doing the same- seems bogus. In all reality, a deal may have been worked out between Roc-A-Fella and Best Buy to exclusively push this album. If you look at it from Jay and Kanye’s point of view, they won’t be paid anyways with millions of kids downloading their beats for free, so they might as well take the commercial cash from a big-time distributor and turn some sort of profit. Otherwise, this masterpiece would have been out a week or two ago and the hype would have already died. But let’s not let all the politics surrounding this bad boy bring it down- this quality rap indeed.
The Empire
August 8, 2011
‘Watch The Throne’ Released Without Leak
Those Watching the Throne will have a hard time looking away.
If there was anyone that could keep this mega-project from being released to the public before the scheduled release date, it was this duo of Jay-Z and Kanye West. With Watch The Throne being distributed digitally first and then physical copies hitting Best Buy shelves August 12th, there seems to be a plan in place to make the most cash possible. The news that these CDs would only be released at Best Buys nationwide caused uproar amongst independently owned record shops- indie stores and privately owned places that have been struggling to stay afloat in a time and age when no one pays for music anymore. But this phenomenon has taken its toll on the entire industry, and that includes the musicians themselves. It seems the only ones making out in all of this are us as the listeners.
John Meneilly, Jigga’s manager, has come out to say this Best Buy only deal was to avoid a leak. I guess the probability of a privately owned record shop employee swiping a copy of the heralded product is higher than a Best Buy employee doing the same- seems bogus. In all reality, a deal may have been worked out between Roc-A-Fella and Best Buy to exclusively push this album. If you look at it from Jay and Kanye’s point of view, they won’t be paid anyways with millions of kids downloading their beats for free, so they might as well take the commercial cash from a big-time distributor and turn some sort of profit. Otherwise, this masterpiece would have been out a week or two ago and the hype would have already died. But let’s not let all the politics surrounding this bad boy bring it down- this quality rap indeed.