A cut-price Lady Gaga album, made available to download from Amazon for just 61p, had such a rush of interest that the online retailer’s servers stalled.
Amazon bosses had no idea what they were letting themselves in for when they offered Lady Gaga’s latest album Born This Way to US buyers for the cut price for one day only.
The Lady Gaga offer was also intended to help Amazon promote its new Cloud Drive service, which allows users to store music files on remote servers and stream them over the Internet to their computer or smartphone.
But only a few hours after Born This Way went live on the site, Amazon’s website stalled and thousands of fans were left disappointed after they were unable to download the album in full or listen to its 14 tracks.
Angry customers soon took to their Twitter or Facebook pages to vent their fury and some even wrote on Amazon’s review section.
One said: “Very disappointed. I guess next time I will pay full price and get the album immediately on iTunes.”
However Amazon admitted that its promotion of the highly anticipated second studio album resulted in downloading delays due to high volume. The company thanked customers for their patience after users complained that they were unable to download the full 14 tracks.
Amazon wrote on its Twitter page that the site was “experiencing high volume” and added: “If you order today, you will get the full @ladygaga album for $.99. Thanks for your patience.”
While some fans were left battling with the online retailer for their album, others had queued up outside Best Buy store in New York to meet the star, who was there to sign CD copies of the album.
Lady Gaga, real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, arrived at the shop in a leather dominatrix-style leather contraption that was adorned with gold chains.
Underneath she wore fishnet tights with fishnet hold-ups over them and her trademark heel-less shoes, which were actually knee-high lace-up boots.
While her outfit may not have shocked her fans, ordinary shoppers were certainly left aghast.
Earlier that day Gaga had made a couple of TV appearances, including The Late Show with David Letterman where she performed her new single and shocked her host as she sat very unladylike in the chair by his side.
Gaga also decided to eat his notes when her host went through a list of rumours about her, asking her to say if they were true or false.But she lost patience and shoved Letterman’s note cards in her mouth, saying: “I’m just so fed up with all of this.”
Gaga also gave a radio interview during which she spoke about having a threesome but refused to name with whom.
When asked directly whether she had ever had a three- in-a-bed romp, she replied: “Um, well I suppose I have, yes.”
