Amazon.com's mp3 download servers were almost brought to a stand still yesterday as Lady Gaga fans feverishly snapped up her new album, Born This Way, for a 1 day promotional 99 cents.

The American arm of the online retailer decided to offer the 15 track mp3 version on launch day for less than a dollar - a full $11 less than on iTunes. However, it seems that its servers couldn't cope with demand.

PC Mag states that it bought and started downloading the album at 2.45pm Eastern Time, but only one track had successfully arrived by 3.30pm. The other tracks steadfastly remained at 0 per cent complete.

One of the retailer's official Twitter accounts, @amazonmp3, had to apologise for the disruption to its service and confirm that, even with the massive delays the album would arrive eventually: "We're currently experiencing very high volume," it said. "If you order today, you will get the full @ladygaga album for $.99. Thanks for your patience."

The promotion is now over, and calm has seemingly been restored. Born This Way is now listed at $6.99 for the normal mp3 version. It's also available on the UK for £3.99 until Sunday 29 May.

It'd be interesting to know whether there was any disruption to those who wanted to download something other than the Lady Gaga album. Were you affected yesterday? Let us know in the comments below...

Pic by Flickr / aphrodite-in-nyc - used under Creative Commons license.