Singer Beyonce performs at the BRIT Awards, celebrating British pop music, at the O2 Arena in London
Singer Beyonce performs at the BRIT Awards, celebrating British pop music, at the O2 Arena in London February 19, 2014. REUTERS/Toby Melville REUTERS/Toby Melville

The fact that the surprise release of Beyoncé's album in December 2013 was a huge hit is well known. Her album broke all iTunes sales records as it was downloaded 830,000 times in just three days. Unlike her other albums, this one was released without much promotions and teasers in advance. It was not even announced.

Despite this fact, the album was a huge phenomenal hit across the globe.

The album and its success story is now the part of the course curriculum of students of 'Strategic Marketing in Creative Industries' in Harvard Business School. The faculty of the Business Administration Department in the prestigious institution has studied closely the whole process of the making of this album through various interviews and research. Subsequently, they came up with a case study for the benefit of students.

The case study has the detailed report of how the album was made and poses questions to students such as how they would have managed if they were also part of Beyoncé's team. Harvard professor Anita Elberse and her former student Stacie Smith have interviewed many team members who worked with the artist at that time.

As reported by US Weekly, many interesting facts have been revealed and included in the case study. Here are some features of the 'modus operandi' of the hit album.

  • When the album was being written in the summer of 2012, instead of working in office settings, a big house was rented in Hamptons with different teams camping in each room which was fitted with a studio like set-up.
  • Producers and songwriters were present in the premises all the time--throughout the summer when the work was in progress. Beyoncé would drift from one room to another to enquire about the work being done and taking inputs.
  • Although the singer has a good eye for business details, her true passion still lies in music. She could not sit still for more than one hour in a meeting and soon gets restless in a formal seating or in a conference hall. Hence, the new location suited her.
  • The music was deliberately launched on iTunes as AAPL, which has 65% market share for paid music downloads. As per Bloomberg Business Week, Beyoncé's marketing team chose iTunes due to this fact.

Please click the link below to catch her hit number Drunk in Love: