According to members of her team, one of the major stumbling blocks to Samsung’s planned giveaway of Rihanna’s forthcoming album, ANTI—as part of the highly publicized $25m deal with the tech giant—is how to make it count on the charts.
Adding further drama has been a series of date changes for the release, which had been scheduled originally for 11/20, then moved to 11/6 and now looks headed to 12/4 or 12/11. Once Adele was added to the schedule, the scramble to find a new date began—and the plan to set up a huge sponsored giveaway became the only viable alternative to a brutal chart spanking from the British Queen of Pop.
She and Roc Nation even consider bumping the release to 2016, particularly given press coverage suggesting Adele's pending release has affected her confidence about ANTI. Her father, Ronald Fenty, was quoted as saying his daughter is "not happy" and "not comfortable" with the album. Some on the label side feel this has become a greater possibility in the last few days, due to the pressure from Adele and the other obstacles facing the release of ANTI.
