This is shady!
Rihanna is celebrating a platinum designation after ANTI, her eighth studio album, was deemed a massive seller this week by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)… but wait a second!!
Photo: Rihanna Owns The Most Extravagant Pair Of Headphones
The album, of course, was released for free on Jay Z‘s music service Tidal — so how could fans have bought one million copies elsewhere if they could just get it there?!
After all, it’s only been 24 hours, the RIAA’s tracking week isn’t even over, and there’s no way the album has already sold 1 million legitimate copies!
But maybe there’s something else going on here…
Allegedly, Samsung has a marketing deal alongside Tidal, and they snapped up one million copies of the album — as part of their $ 25 million sponsorship with the music service — and gave them away for free on Tidal.
THANK U NAVY!!! #ANTI IS PLATINUM!! https://t.co/mS5za0Mi05
— Rihanna (@rihanna) January 29, 2016
Of course, Billboard and Nielsen won’t count these as sales, but that apparently hasn’t stopped the RIAA!
Related: Rihanna Flaunts Her Figure In A White Bikini!
Hmm…
Shady shady!!
Ultimately, we get it — everybody wants to go platinum. But when you stretch rules like this, the distinction ends up being meaningless!!
What do U think of ANTI — have you listened to it yet?!
[Image via WENN.]
Tags: anti, business blitz, jay z, music minute, music streaming, new album, new music, platinum, record, riaa, rihanna, samsung, streaming, tidal