Rihanna’s Label Now Turning Blame Back On TIDAL For ‘ANTI’ Album Leak?
Universal Music Group, Rihanna‘s label, isn’t going to take the blame being lobbed at the company by streaming service TIDAL over problems that caused the leak of new album ANTI last week. According to Music Business Worldwide, an anonymous “senior exec at the major’s US HQ” told the publication 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.”
To recap, ANTI was initially made available on TIDAL late last week as an exclusive stream. Through a deal with Samsung, one million download copies of the album were purchased by the electronics company and given for free to fans. (This caused Rihanna and her camp, plus the RIAA, to claim the album had gone Platinum upon its first day of release.)
Before all this, however, ANTI prematurely popped up on TIDAL, causing it to be ripped and leaked online ahead of its scheduled release.
Last week, TIDAL’s director of marketing, Grace Kim, told SPIN, “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.” A TIDAL rep then followed up with SPIN by stating that Kim was “referring to a system error caused by Universal Music Group. The error was not something TIDAL caused.”
So there you have it: Fingers being pointed both ways. From its sound to its rollout to the drama behind the scenes with its release, ANTI is certainly living up to its title as far as conforming to the norms of what’s expected from a typical pop release from an artist like Rihanna.
But do you think the album is worth all this drama?
What are your own thought son Rihanna’s eighth album? Let us know below, or by hitting us up on Facebook and Twitter!
