Rihanna released her much-delayed, yet long-awaited eighth studio album, ANTI, abruptly this past Thursday, and the project is already making its way up towards the rafters.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the album platinum in a mere 15 hours.
The ubiquitous pop star released the album through Jay Z’s Tidal streaming service (to which she also serves as “co-owner”) and was reportedly downloaded and/or bought 1.4 million times.
Speaking with SPIN, Tidal’s director of marketing, Grace Kim, confirmed that the rumor of them accidentally leaking the album was true but it obviously did more good than harm.
“When we started this campaign, we expected this to take a week,” she said. “That’s a really big deal for us.” When asked if the initial leak of the record just hours before it was officially released hurt or helped ANTI gain the buzz to ship 1.4 million copies, Kim said no. “Look, we know what happened here, in the sense that unfortunately we still rely on systems, and there was a system error. But I don’t think it hurt it at all.”
Despite the overnight milestone, both Billboard and Nielsen Soundscan aren’t counting the activity on Tidal for their respective charts.
“There were conversations [with Billboard] early on when this promotion and partnership started, but ultimately it became about giving music directly to the fans,” Kim continued. “While everyone would’ve love to have it count, the thing that we’re focused on here is that it’s No. 1.”
Ironically, Jay Z faced a similar predicament in 2013 when he released his most recent album, Magna Carta… Holy Grail through Samsung (similarly to what Rihanna was attempting to do before the glitch in the Matrix) when his instantaneous RIAA platinum certification was met with reluctance from the other charting systems. It prompted a now infamous tweet from a mogul who rarely uses the Internet.
ANTI is now available for purchase and stream via Tidal.
Fuck outta here…they’re finding new ways to falsify sales now…this isn’t platinum..and Manga Trasha Holy Crap still probably isn’t officially platinum either…put it in stores and see who actually will make the effort to buy…
It did go in stores you fucking idiot!!! And sold over a million units physical copies look it up u fucking dumb ass
WTF hate her new song, she cant fucking sing!!! And then to make it worse her labels are paying media outlets to write shit like OH SHE’S A TERRIFIC SINGER. FOH! Im tired of this diarhraa music being mass advertised to the masses. They play SHIT songs a thousand times over in a day until the brainless zombies repeat every words of the song… or the shit they understand. FOH. Bring the TALENT back.
Jay-z was platinum on MCHG before it dropped . The sceptic in me thinks they’ve worked out a similar sort of deal here but kept it on the low. If not, this chick just killed everyone lol
rihanna is a FRAUD. Samsung bought 1 million copies of her new album :/
no drake’s a fake fraud!!!
Shows that its possible with a dedicated, core fan base, Jay accomplished a milestone with the way MCHG was released and opened kicked down the doors for other artist, Tital seems to be growing and moving along well…ReRe#HOV
See, people. Another reason why Hov is the best. He made it possible to go Platinum in less than a day, and it can be all from downloads and not actual physical copies. Can Nas do that to himself or his irrelevant artists? In his dreams. Oh, and RiRi’s album is bangin’ by the way. #newrules
Most reviews were pretty mixed on anti though.
Who fucking cares about critics when you’re going Plat and making money? Fuck ’em.
Just goes to show that you don’t care about the quality, just the money. Besides, no one will remember Anti in a few months since Rihanna is a singles artists and not an album artist. Also, money doesn’t make you the best, look at Donald Trump for example.
That’s the talk of a dickrider right there.
@ Fuck Queensbridge Jay Z’s initial album sales numbers had absolutely nothing to do with downloads or physical copies. Jay Z sold that album to Samsung for 10 Mill before it ever came out, and also negotiated the terms of sales with the RIAA beforehand. I highly doubt that album or even a single off it hit a number anywhere near there after it was released to the public. You can check soundscan to verify
Sadly, a lot of people like him despite being racist and clueless.
I still don’t know what does a hiphop site have in common with this pop bitch. She has a song with Drake? Cool. Mike Patton dropped a full album today with indie rapper Doseone. Where’s the post about it?
GTFO with fake pop music. I come here for hiphop!
He did? Peepin it right now!
we dont believe you, you need more people.
Since rihanna’s wack pop, of course her crap will sell more
Samsung bought a million copies of the album and distributed it for free. How is this an accomplishment?
Good question, the RIAA changed its policy in regards to the way album sales are clocked when Jay Z sold Magna Carta to Samsung. So weird how these artists are now selling entire albums to corporations
As usual, whenever I say something about Nas, all his stans come out of the closet in full force. So, C.E. and Anon, y’all gonna tell me if you were Platinum selling artists making money, you would still be worried about what critics say about your music? LMAO, and Rihanna got her tour coming anyway, and fans will be filling up stadiums around the world. More $$$ bitches, something broke ass Nas will never see.
Adele albums sell far better than rihannas and also sells way more singles. Of course it helps that she got the acclaim (in addition to the great marketing support Rihanna got) where as Rihanna is considered OK at best. But like someone says, money doesn’t make you a better person
Yall sayin it dont matter because samsung bought all the copies and its true that she would not have went platinum if she would’ve done a regular release but the FACTS are that the majority of artists do not even have 1mill ppl interested in their music. A lot of em may not even reach 500k downloads, especially in under 24hrs. it’s still an accomplishment, albeit with an asterisk beside it.
Keep in mind though that it’s really one person representing a company purchasing a million rather than a million purchasing copies. Still money either way but there’s artists like Taylor Swift and adele selling millions in a week and they don’t have the Samsung boost.
Is this fuck queensbridge guy on roc nations payroll or something?
No, but your mom’s on my dick.
she got her fingers in your booty as bitch!!
Elzhi dropped a new jawn yesterday, but hiphopdx posted about Rihanna’s corporate record instead. About a month ago you guys posted a whole blog facilitating drama about his new album, then when he drops new music its crickets. For Real????
damn you know there’s other sites you can go to….. riri isn’t second fiddle to nobody
Never did I say she was. And I’m not aware of any other website that reported on a lack of production on the record I’m speaking of without a proper follow up. Nest you forget this commentary section is open to remind these guys when they miss something, especially thats relative to hiphop considering the name at the top of the page #StraightFacts
So complaining about some stupid elzhi album on an article about rihanna makes sense? be real people would rather read about her, and those are straight facts!
I gotta say, I’m a Rihanna fan but this method of music distribution isn’t something that we all can understand and accept as yet. They wanted to get the album out as quickly as possible to the fans, they did so, but that’s it. This can’t be counted in the traditional sense. It’s obvious if something is free it will be quickly consumed by the masses, we do it everyday when we pirate stuff after all. Tidal will have to see if their strategy plays out in the long run with user memberships.