The much-delayed project was originally to be made available a day ahead of its 1/29 release date to Samsung Galaxy owners. As part of a deal worth $30m, Samsung would give away 1m albums while Tidal would stream the album on Thursday, 1/28. But then the album leaked, when Tidal itself made ANTI available to purchase, even though only for a few minutes. This resulted in less than 500 units being sold—not enough for the album to chart on its own, but when combined with track sales and streams, it landed ANTI in an inauspicious position just outside the Top 25.
Tidal is blaming UMG for the leak, while UMG points back to Tidal and disavows any responsibility. Both have claimed the leak was due to technical problems, although neither has offered any specifics. In any case, the reality is a less than stellar chart debut for one of the world’s biggest musical brands—delighting the Beyoncé-obsessed BeyHive fan site, of course. As the Billboard 200 is now the public-facing chart, heads are being scratched as some wonder how much damage has been done by the botched rollout.
They also dragged Billboard for even making it debut, and not counting it only for full week
While the leak of RiRi's album ahead of street date caused the Industry Bible to put her on its chart early (at #27), it's worth noting that Team Janice certainly has discretion in such cases, and might have looked the other way for a major artist who's one of the biggest brands in the biz. It's further confirmation that the Bible bunch have virtually no grasp on the nuances of the music industry.
Their coverage of the sexiest sweatpants and nastiest Twitter feuds, however, is above reproach.
