After she released her much-anticipated new album as a free download last month, Rihanna's Anti has reportedly sold fewer than 1,000 physical copies.
After a drawn-out album campaign, Rihanna's eighth LP was rush-released last month thanks to an online leak. One million copies were given away to fans via Tidal - though they didn't need to be subscribers to get their hands on it.
Because of those million downloads, the Recording Industry Associaition of America immediately certified the record as platinum. Tidal reported that it had sold a further 484,833 downloads, and that it was streamed more than 5.6 million times.
All that sounds great - and it is - but the album hasn't fared as well in its physical release. According to Nielsen figures, the album sold fewer than 1,000 copies in the United States - and a subscriber to its service told the New York Times that the exact figure was 460.
As for the album leak, Tidal and Universal are blaming each other. A spokesperson for the Jay-Z owned streaming service said the leak was a result of "a system error caused by Uniersal Music Group." A spokesperson for Universal, though, said that accusation is "both ridiculous and false. They are trying to pass blame for their own incompetence." Ouch.
Somehow, we doubt Rihanna's particularly fazed.
