(AllHipHop News) Through all of the rapper squabbles last week, Pop/R&B superstar Rihanna managed to grab some attention as well by releasing her 8th studio album Anti. The project suffered an unexpected leak on Tidal before it was scheduled to go live, but according to the company’s Director of Marketing Grace Kim the mishap did not hinder the initial success of Anti.
[ALSO READ: Rihanna Releases ‘Anti’ Album Featuring Drake & SZA On Tidal]
“Look, we know what happened here, in the sense that unfortunately we still rely on systems, and there was a system error. But I don’t think it hurt it at all,” Kim relayed to Spin. According to Tidal, the system error was caused by Universal Music Group.
The statements about Anti not being hurt by the error appear to be accurate. Rihanna’s latest effort was downloaded more than 1.4 million times in 15 hours on Tidal, streamed more than 13 million times the first day, landed at #1 on iTunes, and already certified platinum by the RIAA.
While Anti will get a platinum plaque from the RIAA, Billboard will include the downloads via a free Samsung code giveaway for its album charts. Tidal apparently was in communication with Billboard about the partnership between Rihanna and Samsung, but the artist-owned company was more concerned about the “Work” singer connecting directly with her fans than Nielsen album totals.
“This is the new model. The new model is about how many fans are we getting the music to,” added Kim. “Soon enough everyone else with have to come along for the ride. We believe this is just the beginning of how we market albums, how we distribute music to fans, how fans consume music. It’s just a different way of thinking.”
[ALSO READ: Rihanna’s “Anti” Album Downloaded Over 1 Million Times In 14 Hours]