What a tangled web has been weaved with Rihanna‘s ‘ANTI.’
The sometimes singer dropped her eighth studio album last week and has been embroiled in controversy ever since.
For many, the issue – beyond the free project’s questionable quality – stems from its sales. More specifically the great effort that has arguably been gone to to conceal its true commercial performance.
Said furore erupted after the RIAA certified the LP Platinum in the US despite a Samsung sponsorship making the 1 million “sold” copies available to fans for free.
Stirring more confusion into the mix was Rih’s exclusive streaming partner TIDAL, who went on to claim that an additional 400,000 equivalent copies of the album has been shifted.
All of this and yet confirmed industry forecasts have ‘ANTI’ on-course to open with full first week numbers of 95k-130k Stateside.
So what’s actually going on?
The good folk over at TIDAL have provided additional info to help clear things up.
Speaking to SPIN, another TIDAL rep further clarified the situation saying:
“Of the 400K+ in global sales of ANTI via TIDAL, Billboard will only be counting US sales.”
So, the alleged 400k touted was actually worldwide and not the numbers in the US. A fact which makes sense, but ultimately has us – and, we’re sure, many more – wondering whether the lack of clarity was a deliberate PR ploy all along.
After all, had the masses not revolted and demanded answers, would a rep have ever been forced to weigh in with the true tea?!
Forget the rulebook; if there’s anything fRih is re-defining, it’s messiness.
Because, at this junction, ‘ANTI’ is hands-down one of the most flawed roll-outs in recent music memory.
Tidbit: For all the TIDAL hoopla, Ms. Fenty has been doing A LOT of Apple/iTunes promo on social media of late.
Get those sales, girl.