Her career is fine. Rihanna is an established artist and can afford to mess up to a certain extent. The wait for ANTi was annoying and at times cruel to the fans but it was worth it, plus she's given it out for free.
Work is #1 in 80 countries, she had 2 big hits just last year, if she wanted she could just go the normal route with these 3 hits and release an album that would become an instant success, turned out she didn't, her career is far from being ended
The album is good and her career is fine. I don't think Tidal is to blame for how much of a colossal mess this era has been. I think it's a combination of messy management, creative differences (Kanye's vision vs Rihanna's vision vs Travis Scott's influence on her), and confusion over the direction of the album/era (trap music vs pop music, cutting edge vs traditional Rihanna album, release method, etc). I think the era began too early. She was promoting (barely, though) "FourFiveSeconds" and the Home soundtrack at the same time. She couldn't give the era her undivided attention, as she usually does.
Beyonce's release method worked because it was perfectly orchestrated and well thought out. Tidal was too new for ANTi to be released back when the first 3 singles came out. At this point, Tidal doesn't even have enough users to warrant an exclusive this big. I think that's why they're releasing a number of copies for free without a membership. I like that ANTi randomly dropped like it did, but it was a long time coming. A lot of the hype for the album died, and there was too much uncertainty with the release date.
