Universal Refuses To Take Blame For Rihanna’s ‘Anti’ Album Leak

Who leaked Rihanna’s “Anti” album? That’s the burning question of the week. Initially the blame was placed on TIDAL, who says there was a system glitch in the system, but not THEIR system. They then placed the blame of the improper rollout on Universal Music Group. Now UMG is fighting against the claims that they are the culprit behind the Anti leak. 

Billboard spoke with a UMG executive, who wanted to remain anonymous, about the drama surrounding the album release. “This whole thing is absurd, we would have taken responsibility if it were our error,”  they tell Billboard. “Instead of having their flack flail around trying to revise their own media spin, maybe they should just focus on serving Rihanna — that’s what we’re focused on.”

Anti did 1.47 million downloads in total, 1 million of which were given complimentary from Samsung. According to Nielson Soundscan the album received 460 downloads in the United States, had 4.2 million streams and 126,000 sales of individual tracks. However, the first full week isn’t until Thursday and industry sales executives predict that “Anti” could sell up to 130,000 copies. 

The physical edition of Anti is slated to hit stores on Friday, February 5.

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