Rihanna’s ‘ANTI’ Album Sells 460 Copies As Tickets For World Tour Drop
Rihanna’s eighth album, ANTI, was the most highly-anticipated album since 2014. Surprisingly, the album didn’t sell as well as expected.
That’s probably because Rihanna’s new release was accidentally leaked on the streaming service, TIDAL. In addition, most of her fans were desperately illegally downloading the album after its leak.
According to a report via The New York Times, the album was released late night on Wednesday after a grueling eight-week marketing campaign. ANTI was then released with the help of a sponsorship deal with Samsung. One million copies were given away to lucky fans.
These copies led the Recording Industry Association of America to announce that ANTI was certified as a platinum release. TIDAL then announced that it sold 484,833 downloads of the album, in addition to the one million given away from the Samsung promotion, and said that the album was streamed 5.6 million times via its service.
Despite these impressive numbers, ANTI had a horrible start on the Billboard album chart for its first week, which goes through the end of Thursday. Rihanna’s new album only debuted at No. 27, which is her lowest chart position ever. Nielsen announced that the album sold less than 1,000 copies in the U.S. It actually sold only 460 copies in its first week; therefore, Billboard will not recognize Rihanna’s new album as platinum certified.
Another reason for the low album sales for ANTI is likely because of TIDAL. A spokesperson for the service, Dan Roberti, says that the album was officially released after Samsung’s giveaway, meaning the album only had a few hours to receive sales for the remainder of the week.
Now, Rihanna and TIDAL are teaming up yet again to giveaway tickets for her ANTI World Tour. In an effort to increase the sales of the album and boost ANTI’s chart position, the giveaway requires no purchase to enter or win tickets to her tour. All fans need to do is to stream RiRi’s new album to increase their chances of winning.
The ANTI World Tour hasn’t been selling well, either. Most of the tour dates still have tickets available. That’s probably because Rihanna’s fans weren’t informed on an exact release date for the album, and many were hesitating to buy tickets for the tour supporting her recent release.
Rihanna announced the first dates of her ANTI World Tour in North America and Europe back in November. The first leg of the tour will feature rapper and rumored boyfriend Travi$ Scott, and will kick off on Feb. 26 at the Viejas Arena in San Diego, California. Rih will then perform 36 dates until the tour ends on May 7 in Oakland. Then, on June 11, the ANTI World Tour will take over Europe, with headline openers like Big Sean and The Weeknd, where it’s scheduled to run until the end of August.
According to a report via TheStreet, 24 hours after tickets for Rihanna’s world tour went on sale, tickets were selling at an average of $190 on secondary sites. Before the tickets went on sale, resale tickets averaged at $227, marking a 16 percent decrease in the market.
The most expensive tickets in the tour are for Rihanna’s March 27 show at The Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where they average at $270 each and the cheapest tickets available for $68 each.
Although Rihanna’s ANTI has received its share of mixed reviews, she should be still be able to rack up sales for both her album and ticket sales. Do you think she’ll be able to sell with time? Sound off below in the comments section.
[Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for WESTBURY ROAD ENTERTAINMENT LLC]
