Rihanna is number 1 today, having sold 125,000 copies of her “Anti” after suffering a Tidal wave last week. Second place Adele still managed to hold her own with sales of 93,000 copies. Adele’s “25” was only down 4% from last week because people on Alpha Centuri are now downloading it. (Who else would be left?)
Rihanna had another 50,000 streams. She might have had more except last week Tidal, Jay Z’s streaming system, gave away the album for free, then Rihanna gave it away on Twitter, and while everyone was pro-“Anti” being free, the whole thing went haywire.
Plus, Tidal’s delivery system via Samsung was a mess. Samsung supposedly bought 1 million copies at $5 apiece. Tidal delivered them. Last week, I tried three times to get my copy sent to my Edge 6. First it didn’t come. Then, a few days later, three copies arrived on my phone. Three. For free. I wonder how many people received multiple copies.
Almost everyone in the top 10 is performing on the Grammys February 15th. So watch for a bounce on Friday, the 19th. Should be interesting.
Meantime, on what I’d call the real time chart, this morning’s iTunes Top Albums, Earth Wind & Fire’s Greatest Hits is number 7 ($7.99) in memory of Maurice White. Adele survived three new releases and remains at number 5. Rihanna is number 3. Wiz Khalifa comes in at number 1.
As for EWF: You kids should really get the whole album, “That’s the Way of the World,” and listen to it from start to finish.
