Days after Rihanna’s ANTI release, both TIDAL and Universal are still pointing fingers at one another for the early leak of the album fans waited 3 yrs for.
As we know, ANTI was released last Thursday (January 28), initially as a streaming exclusive on TIDAL, in which Rihanna is believed to own a 3% stake.
A million free downloads of the album were also made available through a link tweeted by the star, paid for by Samsung.
However, ahead of the LP’s official arrival, it momentarily popped up on TIDAL earlier that day. It was subsequently taken down, but not before it was ripped and leaked.
TIDAL’s Marketing Director Grace Kim told SPIN that the early ANTI leak was due to a ‘system error’ on TIDAL.
Then things got ugly: a spokesperson for the platform followed up with SPIN, pointing out that Kim was “referring to a system error caused by Universal Music Group”.
As you can imagine, this hasn’t gone down like a strawberry dreamboat at Universal towers.
A senior exec at the major’s US HQ, speaking under the condition of anonymity, told MBW yesterday: “This accusation is both ridiculous and false.
“We delivered the content exactly to their specs. It’s something we do every day on a global basis.
“They are trying to pass blame for their own incompetence.”
Boom! So TIDAL says it’s UMG’s fault and UMG says it’s TIDAL’s fault.
I would imagine that someone, somewhere has to carry the can for the error – particularly when Samsung, Rihanna, Jay Z and the whole Roc Nation team will be demanding answers. The few minutes of the leak resulted in approximately 1,000 units sold. Not bad when considered in the proper context. However when bumped against projects with a full 7 days of sales it appears meek.
Then again, perhaps it doesn’t matter all that much… depending on who you believe. The album was streamed more than 13 million times in 14 hours on TIDAL. It also has already been certified platinum by the RIAA.
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