Beyonce's decision to release her new album only on iTunes with no promotion earlier this month was the most "brave" thing she has ever done, she told fans this weekend.

"I've never done anything so brave in my life," Beyonce, 32, said Saturday at a New York City screening of the music videos from her self-titled album. "I really wanted to surprise people and didn't want it to be all about the hype and promotion."

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The decision paid off for the "Grown Woman" singer as the album, her fifth, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts and sold 617,000 units in the United States in a week.

Beyonce's one-week exclusive partnership with iTunes for the 14-song and 17-music video album raked in $9.5 million but angered retail giants Target and Amazon who have refused to stock the CD version of "Beyonce."

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Amazon declined to comment to ABC News. Target said in a statement that it is "primarily focused on offering CDs that will be available in a physical format at the same time as all other formats."

"What Amazon and Target are saying to the labels, in general, is you can't boss us around anymore," Dominic Patten of Deadline Hollywood said. "You can't tell us what we get a piece of and what we don't."

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Beyonce made another surprise move Friday when she gave fans at a Boston-area Walmart, a competitor of both Target and Amazon, $50 gift cards.

Beyonce reportedly handed out 750 of the $50 gift cards, adding a total of $37,500 to Walmart's bottom line. The singer also shopped in the store herself, throwing a "Beyonce" CD, which Walmart sells, in her cart.