RiRi's much anticipated album ANTI has already been certified platinum because Samsung pre purchased 1M copies of the album to distribute as a free download. Plus the album has already been streamed 14M times on Tidal. This could easily hit No.1 on the charts but true sales numbers will be muddied because Billboard won't count that Samsung purchase, I believe he same thing happened with Drakes latest album due to his Apple deal. Rihanna doesn't strike me as one to care too much about the stats though. She has managed however to finesse a $25M deal with Samsung last year and got them to sponsor her next tour with Travi$ Scott.
This begs the question is big company involvement good or bad for the game? Artists used to really have to hustle to get that Platinum certification. If a behemoth like Samsung can swoop in and buy 1M to put you at a Platinum level off the bat, what does that say? Is this the future of the game, where artists are financially cosigned by big companies like Apple, Samsung, or even Sony? What happens when a big player withdraws their sponsorship? I don't have the answers but I guess only time will tell.
Let me know what you think!
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