In reply to Brent Christopher.

Unfortunately - Streaming, YouTube and social media have reduced the attention span of a large proportion of the younger music listening demographic. The older demographic may love the steady rollout - but that is not all of Rihanna’s fan base - and if she wants to capture new younger listeners she can’t afford not to do what it takes to keep them engaged in her new material.

Like it or not - Ariana changed the game as soon as she dropped a new album so closely to her previous and started releasing singles from the new album and touring under the title of the previous one.

It taught her fanbase that traditional album rollouts aren’t the only way to do it - they can have the new music fast and dirty - and this is a great example of hyper saturation of material that was eaten up by those short attention span having music fans. It paid off for Ariana and although she hasn’t been around as long - changed the game. A good label will take note an adapt accordingly.