The big music news of the week has been Beyonce dropping her album Beyonce without announcing it first. This is newsworthy for many reasons. For one, not creating buzz before you release new music is unheard of, as it increases the chances of the album not doing well. However, this is Beyonce and we all know better, which leads us to number two.

Of course the album is doing amazingly well, shattering iTunes records and claiming the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Charts. Featuring 15 songs and 17 videos, it’s pretty safe to say the singer’s fifth record is a success. Perhaps the biggest news of all, is that she has done it without the help of mega retailers Target and Amazon, who have refused to sell the record – the third reason why this event has been so popular in the news world.

Target and Amazon are waging a musical and financial war against the star for releasing her album on iTunes first, by refusing to sell the album – Amazon is selling the MP3 version, Target won’t sell either the CD or digital versions. By giving iTunes a one-week exclusive to sell the album, Beyonce has enabled them to sell 600,000 units at $15.99 each. That’s a whopping $9.5 million in just seven days.

Although $10 million is a lot of cash to the average person, it’s not much by Target and Amazon’s standards, which leads experts to believe there’s a method to their madness. This action sends a major message to other artists that if they give iTunes an advantage over them, Target and Amazon won’t sell their records.

So how did Beyonce react to the news? By visiting a suburban Boston Wal-Mart – the arch nemesis of both Target and Amazon. Not only did the songstress make an appearance – and give a message of her own to the retailers – but she made the holidays of shoppers that much better by handing out $50 gift cards to everyone in the store.

See more about Bey’s Walmart experience here:

All hail Queen B.

Image via Wikimedia Commons