Rihanna's New Album ‘Anti’ Hits Platinum But Tidal Downloads Don't Count, Says U.S. Charts
Distribution methods have divided charts over the issue of the free release of Rihanna's new album "Anti."
Billboard has debunked the finding of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)'s certification of Rihanna's "Anti," her newest album, as platinum, dividing the recording industry in determining the performance of a record.
In an interview with Digital Trends, Billboard's Silvio Pietroluongo, the company's Director of Charts, said that it does not consider free downloads in its count for album sales.
"Anti" was both released as an album for sale and for free, with Rihanna offering a promo code to fans following a $25 million deal that she signed with Samsung. In effect, the album made its way for free throughout the internet, and was downloaded around 1.4 million times within 14 hours.
Rihanna's new album "Anti" essentially disqualified itself with the free download, as "Billboard has a well-documented policy of not counting free albums towards the charts," PietroLuongo explained.
The difference marks the different approach in how both charts treat products such as Rihanna's new album "Anti."
Rihanna's album, the New York Times wrote, opened at no. 27. It was said to be her lowest record. Per the Nielsen report, "Anti" only sold less than 1,000 copies in the United States.
The Nielsen report added that "the album also had 4.2 million streams and 126,000 sales of individual tracks."
Another source said that physical copies sold were less than 500 albums.
"Billboard and the RIAA don't always coincide with how they count things," Pietroluongo was quoted as saying.
Tidal and Billboard have since agreed on better ways to treat future products, as the album's release limited itself since Billboard still has strict guidelines covering alternative releases of records online.
Pietroluongo said "six months from now, a year from now, [the Billboard charts] could look different."
This was not the first time that Billboard and the RIAA had differences in how they counted new albums. In 2013, Jay Z's "Magna Carta Holy Grail" was certified by the RIAA as platinum, while Billboard maintained they would not count albums released for free.
Digital Trends, meanwhile, said there could be a loophole. If record labels want to have their records certified platinum, the producers could buy, say, one million copies and immediately be certified.
