SAN FRANCISCO: Fans of Lady Gaga swamped Amazon.com's music service on Monday to get digitized copies of the pop provocateur's new album for just 99 cents.
Within hours of putting out word that “Born This Way” was available for 99 cents for one day only at Amazon's Cloud Drive music service, the online retail giant was struggling to catch up with demand.
“We're currently experiencing very high volume,” Amazon said in a message fired off at its official “MP3” account at microblogging service Twitter.
“If you order today, you will get the full @ladygaga album for $.99,” the message promised while its music downloads hit delays at the company's overwhelmed computers. “Thanks for your patience.”
Making the hot release available at less than a tenth of the album's price at Apple online shop iTunes was intended to harden Cloud Drive's position in the market ahead of the expected debut of a similar music service by Apple.
Amazon launched Cloud Drive in late March as a service allowing people to store music on the company's computers and then listen to tunes on any Internet linked gadgets.
Sluggish or delayed downloads at Cloud Drive frustrated some Lady Gaga fans.
“Reminds me why I usually use iTunes,” Twitter user Martin Dittman said in a terse reply to the AmazonMP3 tweet.
Other feedback was more adoring, with Twitter user “filmfanatic24”marveling at being able to get the album at such a low price and telling Amazon “I love you for it.”
Lady Gaga unveiled her second full-length album this week, three years after taking the music world by storm.
True to her social media-friendly form, the 25-year-old has released “Born this Way” in unconventional style by posting some songs on online social game Farmville ahead of Monday's launch, as well as other singles already issued.
The title track was released in February, shortly before Gaga - real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta - caused a sensation by turning up inside a giant translucent egg at the music industry's annual Grammys awards show.
She also raised eyebrows this weekend when, during a television performance of the song on Saturday Night Live, she simulated giving birth as the finale to the song, surrounded by her writhing dancers.
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