For Rihanna‘s new album ‘ANTI,’ it would appear the truth – and not TIDAL – will set it free.
Released Thursday to much chaos (see: early leak), confusion has encased the true commercial performance of the project ever since.
On the one hand, Jay Z‘s streaming claims 400,000 “bought” the LP (beyond the million free downloads it offered), while the RIAA went on to certify the project Platinum after just 24 hours.
However, with a lukewarm launch iTunes (where the album was made available to purchase a day after its TIDAL arrival) and no physical copies in stores (yet), all eyes have been on the first week predictions.
Well, wonder no more. Because, the first ‘ANTI’ sales predictions await below…
According to Billboard, industry forecasters (using current sales momentum data) expect ‘ANTI’ to shift around 125,000 in equivalent album units in the week ending February 4th.
Depending on which way Adele’s domineering sales go, such numbers “could” clinch RiRi the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 next week.
Interestingly, the unintentional leak of the project yielded actual sales of 460 (yes, you read right) and 15,896 album equivalent units (with a short period of official steams factored in). Meaning on this week’s tally, the album begins its chart journey at #27 on the Billboard 200.
Stay tuned as we commit to bring you the undiluted (and unpolluted) stats on Rihanna’s eighth studio album.